TAMPA, Fla. – Ahead of Hurricane Milton, the Buccaneers will leave the Tampa area early this week and head to New Orleans on Tuesday ahead of their Week 6 game against the Saints.

The team managed to secure the necessary hotel rooms in New Orleans to avoid another flight on Saturday.

According to the National Hurricane Center advisory at 8:05 a.m., Milton has quickly become a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph over the southern Gulf of Mexico. The exact route has yet to be determined, but Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, has begun issuing mandatory evacuations for Zones A and B and all manufactured/mobile homes.

It could make landfall in the Tampa Bay area on Wednesday.

“We are preparing for the highest evacuations we have ever seen, most likely since 2017,” Kevin Guthrie, Florida’s emergency management director, said at a news conference. Forecasters have warned of a possible storm surge of 8 to 10 feet high in Tampa.

The area has already suffered damage from Hurricane Helene, which made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Florida’s Big Bend area on September 26, with the sheer size of the storm affecting much of the state.

The last time the team evacuated the area due to a major hurricane was in 2022, where it headed to Miami ahead of Hurricane Ian. It also did this ahead of Hurricane Irma in 2017, chartering four planes to Charlotte, North Carolina.

Adam Schefter of ESPN and The Associated Press contributed to this report.