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Hurricane Ian strengthens to Category 4 storm as it barrels toward Florida
Hurricane Ian strengthened to a powerful Category 4 storm as it bore down on Florida’s Gulf Coast Wednesday after knocking out power to all of Cuba.
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Hurricane Ian strengthened to a powerful Category 4 storm as it bore down on Florida’s Gulf Coast Wednesday after knocking out power to all of Cuba.
The hurricane was around 75 miles west-southwest of Naples as of around 5 a.m. ET Wednesday, with maximum sustained winds near 140 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.
The center of the storm was on track to approach the west coast of Florida Wednesday morning and move onshore later in the day, it said.
Storm surge flooding was already occurring early Wednesday across the lower Florida Keys, the hurricane center said, while thousands of customers were already without power in an early sign of the storm's power.
Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters late Tuesday that the latest forecast track appeared to show the storm making landfall at Charlotte and Lee counties, south of Tampa.
More than 2 million people along Florida’s Gulf Coast were under evacuation orders, DeSantis said.
He urged people who hadn't left already to do so immediately and warned of the havoc the slow-moving storm could unleash across the state.
"When it actually reaches landfall, it’s going to slow to a trickle," DeSantis said. "That’s going to dump an enormous amount of rain on the state of Florida."