Hurricane forces Lightning, others to alter plans

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.

The Lightning’s home opener, also against Carolina, is set for Saturday night and is on as scheduled for now.

The NFL’s Buccaneers made a similar decision, deciding to travel early to New Orleans for their game against the Saints on Sunday.

It’s third time in the past seven years the Bucs have shifted operations to another area to avoid bad weather.

The Glazer family, which owns the Bucs, booked two planes for a traveling party of about 350 people and 31 pets that included players, coaches and staff who would normally travel to an away game. Staff also had the ability to include their immediate family members and pets.

The team also purchased more than 200 hotels rooms in the Orlando and Gainesville areas for employees and families who wanted to evacuate from their homes ahead of the storm.

An NBA preseason game in Miami — which is not expected to feel hurricane conditions, but is likely to get strong wind gusts and several inches of rain — between the Heat and the Atlanta Hawks was pushed back from Thursday to Oct. 16.

Tropicana Field, home of MLB’s Tampa Bay Rays, has been designated as a staging site for first responders and state and local emergency management services aiding with debris removal. The ballpark in St. Petersburg has been set up to host 10,000 people, with cots set up on the playing surface.

At the college level, the American Athletic Conference announced that the football game between Memphis and South Florida at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa has been rescheduled from Friday night to Saturday.

South Florida is relocating its football team to Orlando later Tuesday, coach Alex Golesh said.

The conference plans to monitor conditions after Milton passes and adjust accordingly.

UCF‘s Big 12 home football game vs. Cincinnati remains scheduled for Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff in Orlando.

The Knights rescheduled events in several other sports, including shifting UCF’s home volleyball match against Colorado from Wednesday night to Sunday. UCF and Arizona changed the location of Thursday’s women’s soccer match from Orlando to Houston. With Arizona set to play at Houston on Sunday and UCF scheduled to play at Colorado the same day, the teams agreed to play Thursday’s match in Texas.

UCF’s men’s soccer match vs. Marshall was rescheduled from Friday night to Sunday. Other college events postponed include a women’s soccer match in Boca Raton between Florida Atlantic and Rice; it was slated for Thursday and now will be played Oct. 17.

The LPGA postponed qualifying for its Q-Series — which had been set to start Sunday and slated to run through Oct. 18 in Venice, Florida, at Plantation Golf and Country Club — and said in a statement that the safety of athletes, caddies, staff, volunteers and the local community is the top priority. The LPGA will announce an update after the storm.

“Our thoughts are with the entire Florida community as we prepare for the storm,” the LPGA said.

Countless high school sports events scheduled around Florida also were called off. In many counties, officials were waiting to see what would happen with football games scheduled for Thursday and Friday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.