Hurricane Milton’s forecast cone covers almost the entire west coast of Florida as the state prepared for the largest mass evacuation since 2017. Milton could be a major hurricane when it

About 7 million people were urged to evacuate Florida in 2017 as Hurricane Irma bore down on the state. The exodus jammed freeways.

Milton continued to grow stronger on Sunday as it rapidly intensified into a hurricane. The latest projections call for the storm to hit Category 4 in the open Gulf of Mexico before weakening slightly to a Category 3 as it approaches Florida’s west coast.