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.

Hurricane Milton was continuing to strengthen in the Gulf of Mexico and was forecast to become a major hurricane later Monday as it inched toward a midweek landfall along the west coast of Florida, where residents are still reeling from the impacts of Hurricane Helene,