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Residents along Florida's Gulf Coast are evacuating and taking cover as the 2023 hurricane season blows in.

Hurricane Adalia is gathering strength off shore. How ready are Floridians for what could be headed their way?

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And a Ugandan man faces a death penalty under the first so-called aggravated homosexuality case.

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In Florida, almost a third of the state's 67 counties have ordered either mandatory or recommended voluntary evacuations as a state braces for a major hurricane.

I'm looking to the website here, the National Hurricane Center, which says Adalia is expected to rapidly intensify into an extremely dangerous major hurricane before coming ashore Wednesday north of Tampa Bay.

This is the first storm to hit Florida this hurricane season, and it approaches about a year after Hurricane Ian struck the Gulf Coast.

MPR's Greg Allen joins us now from St. Petersburg. Greg, first off, where is Adalia? How's it looking?

Adalia is moving north through the Gulf of Mexico. This is a storm is on a path that's headed toward Florida's big bend area.

It appears that's the place on the Gulf Coast where the peninsula meets the panhandle. It's a relatively undeveloped part of the state, and that track of course may change somewhat as we go forward.

But whatever happens, the storms likely have a big impact on areas far from where it makes landfall.

The storm surge in that big bend area may be as high as 12 feet. The National Hurricane Center says tropical storm force winds extend 150 miles from the center of the storm.

And a hurricane warning is in effect for hundreds of miles of Florida's Gulf Coast from Tampa Bay nearly to Panama City.

So people have to date and make final preparations before the expected landfall tomorrow.

If it does wind up hitting north of Tampa, is that a relief for people near there?

Well, still a lot of concern here about storm surge. The National Hurricane Center says it's a storm surge is likely to be four to seven feet here.

And that's worrisome because Tampa Bay area is so low and so prone to flooding the area around it. It's also a time of year when tides are especially high.

And some streets here have already seen flooding from high tides. Florida's director of emergency management, Kevin Guthrie, has been trying to get the word out to communities like Tampa that may be south of where Adalia makes landfall.

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