Editor’s Note: For the latest on Hurricane Milton, find CNN’s live coverage here. CNN — Hurricane Milton has strengthened to Category 3 and continues to intensify two days before it’s due to strike Florida’s Gulf Coast, where communities now are rushing cleanup from catastrophic Hurricane Helene. Ahead of what could be the state’s largest storm exodus in seven years, officials are ramping up evacuation orders, closing schools and issuing dire warnings of storm surge and widespread power failures. FOLLOW LIVE UPDATES Milton boasts top sustained wind speeds of 120 mph, the National Hurricane Center said at 7 a.m. Monday, when the storm was about 750 miles west-southwest of Tampa, moving at 8 mph. SWANNANOA, NORTH CAROLINA - OCTOBER 04: An American flag hangs above floodwaters remaining from Hurricane Helene on October 4, 2024 in Swannanoa, North Carolina. At least 215 people were killed in six states in the wake of the powerful hurricane which made landfall as a Category 4. President Joe...
