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(NEW YORK) — Dozens of health care facilities in Florida are suspending services and/or preparing to evacuate as Hurricane Milton approaches.

On Sunday, Pinellas County – located on the west central Florida coast and including Clearwater and St. Petersburg – issued mandatory evacuation orders for long-term care facilities, assisted living facilities and hospitals in three evacuation zones.

The order affects six hospitals, 25 nursing homes and 44 assisted living facilities, totaling about 6,600 patients, according to the order.

“Pinellas County is in the potential path of the storm and could experience life-threatening storm surge, localized flooding and hurricane force winds, [depending] on where the storm makes landfall on Wednesday,” the order read. “Many coastal areas have barely begun to recover from Hurricane Helene.”

Just north of Pinellas County, Morton Plant North Bay Hospital in New Port Richey initiated evacuation procedures Monday morning and is not accepting new patients, according to a statement from BayCare, the hospital’s parent network.

BayCare said that while all of its other hospitals are open as of Monday afternoon, elective procedures for non-urgent procedures have been canceled for Wednesday, Oct. 9, with a decision for procedures on Thursday, Oct. 11, to come shortly.

All BayCare ambulatory surgery centers, imaging centers, laboratories, urgent care facilities and behavioral health outpatient sites will also be closed Wednesday and Thursday, according to the BayCare statement.

Additionally, the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital, located in Tampa and affiliated with the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, announced the hospital and its outpatient clinics would be closed for in-person appointments and elective surgeries from Tuesday, Oct. 9, to Thursday, Oct. 11, due to “predicted impacts from Hurricane Milton.”

University of Florida Health (UF Health) issued a tropical weather alert Monday afternoon, announcing that most UF Health hospitals, outpatient clinical facilities and physician practices remain open, with some exceptions. Facilities in Archer, Gainesville, Jacksonville, Leesburg, Naples, St. Augustine, St. Petersburg, and The Villages announced closures or modified hours ahead of Milton’s landfall.

HCA Florida Healthcare told ABC News on Monday it was working to transfer patients from hospitals most directly in the Milton’s expected path to sister facilities throughout the state. Hospitals that are transferring patients include HCA Florida Englewood Hospital in Englewood, HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital in Port Charlotte, HCA Florida Largo West Hospital in Largo, HCA Florida Pasadena Hospital in St. Petersburg, and HCA Florida West Tampa Hospital in Tampa.

However, not all health care facilities currently have plans to suspend service. A spokesperson for Tampa General Health (TGH) said no closures have been announced yet and directed ABC News to an update on the hospital’s website, which as of Monday afternoon stated that all of TGH’s “hospitals, medical offices and other facilities are continuing normal operations.”

TGH also said it activated its emergency response plan “and opened its incident command center to enable and support continued operations.”

Another network, Florida AdventHealth, issued a notice that its hospitals and emergency rooms remain open but warned that some of its operations may change “for the safety of our patients, their loved ones and our team members.”

The National Hurricane Center announced Monday that Milton had intensified to a Category 5 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph, and with flooding and storm surges posing a major risk for many communities on Florida’s west central coast.

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(NEW YORK) — Testimony about the psychiatric history of a man who died in a chokehold aboard a New York City subway is only meant to “smear” the victim and should be precluded from upcoming trial of a former Marine charged with manslaughter, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said in a new court filing.

Daniel Penny is scheduled to stand trial next month after he put Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold in May 2023 aboard an F train in what his attorneys say was an effort to “protect the lives of his fellow passengers.” Penny’s attorneys are seeking to call a forensic psychiatrist who they said would “opine regarding the extent of Neely’s K2 abuse” and why that may have caused him to allegedly become “insanely threatening” to subway passengers.

Prosecutors asked the judge to exclude the testimony of the psychiatrist, Dr. Alexander Bardey, and limit what the defense can show from Neely’s psychiatric records.

“The psychiatrist’s testimony and the unredacted psychiatric records are inadmissible and their suggested introduction is a transparent attempt by the defense to smear the victim’s character so that the jury will devalue his life,” assistant district attorney Dafna Yoran said in a motion to preclude Bardey’s testimony from trial.

“Numerous witnesses will testify regarding Mr. Neely’s aggressive behavior on the date of the incident,” Yoran said. “The jury does not need and cannot be permitted to hear Dr. Bardey’s opine as to why Mr. Neely was aggressive.”

The defense has said Neely’s psychiatric history includes non-compliance with medication and chronic K2 abuse and argued that is relevant for the jury to hear.

“Neely’s history of volatile behavior while in treatment, and the steps taken to subdue/restrain him, are documented in these records, and speak to why our client had to use the force necessary to restrain him on the date of incident,” said defense attorney Thomas Kennif, who has argued Penny was justified in seeking to subdue Neely.

Penny has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and negligent homicide charges. He is scheduled to begin trial Oct. 21, re-submitting the highly charged case into the public consciousness less than a month before the election.

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(NEWTON, Mass.) — A 47-year-old Massachusetts man has been charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon after he allegedly shot another individual during an altercation at a pro-Israel demonstration in Newton, officials said Thursday night.

The individual who was shot sustained life-threatening injuries, authorities said at a brief news conference Thursday night. The man is being treated at a local hospital, an official said.

The incident happened around 6:40 p.m. ET when Newton Police responded to calls at Washington and Harvard Street, where a small group of individuals were engaged in a pro-Israeli demonstration on one side of the street, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said.

An individual was “completely randomly” walking down the opposite side of the street, and words were exchanged between the two parties, she explained.

That individual, who Ryan said was not part of the demonstration group, began crossing the street, went back to his side of the street, and then went back across the street again and “ultimately jumped upon one of the demonstrators,” Ryan said, leading to a “scuffle.”

“During that scuffle, the individual who had come across the street was shot by a member of the demonstrating group,” she said.

The 47-year-old alleged shooter was arrested and charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and violation of a constitutional right causing injury, Ryan told the media.

His arraignment will occur Friday in the Newton District Court, she said.

Ryan said it is still early in the investigation, which remains ongoing.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

ABC News’ Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.

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