Hurricane Milton is continuing to rapidly intensify before its expected landfall along Florida’s Gulf Coast sometime Wednesday. The National Hurricane Center on Monday issued a hurricane watch for a stretch of the coastline including Tampa Bay, which remained roughly in the middle of the forecast cone.

The Gulf Coast is once again hunkering down, this time ahead of Hurricane Milton's expected mid-week landfall. Pinellas County residents in zones A, B and C are urged to evacuate, with mandatory orders likely to come early this week.

Hurricane Milton strengthened into a Category 3 storm as Florida gears up for what could be its biggest evacuation in seven years.