The NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning have left Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton to practice the rest of the week in the Raleigh, North Carolina, area for their season opener at the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night.
Milton, currently a Category 5 hurricane, is projected to make landfall in the Tampa Bay area Wednesday night. It had maximum sustained winds of 165 mph as of Tuesday afternoon, and forecasters warned of a storm surge as high as 15 feet in Tampa Bay, leading to evacuation orders for beach communities all along Florida's Gulf Coast.