Hurricane Ian approached Category 5 status with winds up to 155 mph as it barrels toward Florida’s southwest coast this morning expected to carve a path up toward Orlando tonight.
In a special 6:35 a.m. update from the National Hurricane Center, forecasts said recent data from an NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft indicate that maximum sustained winds have increased to near 155 mph, a strong Category 4 system 2 mph shy of Category 5 status located about 65 miles west-southwest of Naples and 80 miles south-southwest of Punta Gorda moving north-northeast at 9 mph.
Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke from the state Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee at 7 a.m.
“Clearly, this is a very powerful major hurricane that’s going to have major impacts, both on impact in southwest Florida, but then as it continues to work through the state,” he said. “It is going to have major, major impacts in terms of wind, in terms of rain, in terms of flooding, so this is going to be a nasty, nasty day — two days.”
He said expected landfall is in Charlotte County, but residents in surrounding counties include Lee, Sarasota and Collier need to now stay in place.
“If you are in any of those counties, it’s no longer possible to safely evacuate,” he said. “It’s time to hunker down and prepare for this storm. This is a powerful storm that should be treated like you would treat if a tornado was approaching your home. If you’re out on the roads get to a safe place as soon as possible.”
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He also warned about dangers after the storm passes.
“I urge you to be cautious. Avoid downed power lines. Avoid standing water, stay clear of damaged trees,” he said. “If you are using a generator for power make sure that that is being operated outside your home do not operate that indoors and then don’t drive in flooded streets — people will look and think they can drive through it and it doesn’t work out well for them.”
And he cautioned that despite losing steam once ashore, the dangers are real for the rest of the state.
“One thing for Central Florida is because we’ve had a lot of saturation, those trees are vulnerable,” he said. “So you’re going to see trees are going to come down even with tropical-storm-force winds. It does not need to be hurricane-force. You are absolutely going to see that that is going to cause interruptions in power. And of course the sheer amount of rain that’s going to come down. It’s gonna have a major impact.”
The NHC said conditions were rapidly deteriorating along Florida’s Gulf Coast with hurricane-force winds extending out 40 miles and tropical-storm-force winds out 175 miles saying “rapidly intensifying Ian forecast to cause catastrophic storm surge, winds and flooding in the Florida peninsula.”
Gusts of 190 mph are predicted when it makes landfall at around 2 p.m., the updated NHC forecast said.
Storm surge from Englewood to Bonita Beach including Charlotte Harbor is forecast to hit from 12-16 feet. Surge up to 10 feet is expected north to Longboat Key near Sarasota and up to 11 feet south past Naples to the Everglades.
Power outages were beginning to pile up across the state. As of 7:15 a.m. Wednesday, more than 80,000 people in the state are without power, mostly in Miami-Dade, Sarasota, Collier, Charlotte, Lee, Broward and Palm Beach counties according to poweroutage.us.
“Ian is forecast to approach the west coast of Florida as an extremely dangerous major hurricane, weakening is expected after landfall,” said NHC senior hurricane specialist Daniel Brown. “On the forecast track, the center of Ian is expected to approach the west coast of Florida within the hurricane warning area this morning, and move onshore later today. The center of Ian is forecast to move over central Florida tonight and Thursday morning and emerge over the western Atlantic by late Thursday.”
The path since Tuesday has not shifted much with the center of the hurricane likely striking south of Venice near Port Charlotte, close to where Hurricane Charley came ashore in 2004, which also brought severe damage to Central Florida.
Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Polk and Lake counties were all put under hurricane warnings Tuesday night as the system could bring potentially “catastrophic” flooding and hurricane-force gusts to Central Florida, forecasters said.
“It’s going to be historic,” said National Weather Service Melbourne meteorologist Kole Fehling in Melbourne.
Much of Central Florida is now also under a tornado watch as outer bands of Ian have already produced several damaging twisters and multiple tornado warnings as they have moved up through the state overnight. The National Weather Service said it includes Brevard, Orange, Osceola, Polk and Seminole counties
Ian had shifted its path south of Tampa Bay, and is now predicted to come ashore between Fort Myers and Sarasota before cutting across the state, including through Osceola and Orange counties and exiting near Daytona Beach, according to Wednesday morning’s 5 a.m. updated path.
Fehling said Central Florida could expect 15 to 20 inches of rainfall, with localized rainfall of up to 24 inches. By comparison, the most rainfall that Orlando has ever experienced over a three-day period has been 13.75 inches.
“The normal value for the amount of rainfall over the entire year is about 52 inches,” Fehling said. “So if we were to see those higher- end totals, we could be experiencing half of our total annual rainfall in a very short period of time.”
He also predicted sustained winds of 55 to 65 mph in the region, with hurricane-force gusts of up to 80 mph.
The strongest winds are expected to arrive Thursday evening, along with the risk of tornadoes to the area as well.
Orlando officials are bracing for Category 1 hurricane conditions or a strong tropical storm.
“I want citizens to take this storm seriously and prepare,” Mayor Buddy Dyer said Tuesday, at a news conference at the city’s Emergency Operation Center. “The track of the storm has changed fairly significantly to the east, so it looks like the path is directly over the city of Orlando in a few days.”
Orange County Fire Rescue teams are heading out Wednesday morning to visit all mobile home parks, encouraging residents to consider staying with family or friends during the storm.
“I want you to listen very carefully to what I’m about to say,” Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said at a press briefing Tuesday night. “It is recommended that residents consider evacuating flood prone areas sooner than later. We want to take it seriously. We do not want to have a situation where because of flooding, persons cannot leave their neighborhoods.”
He then cited areas where residents have previously reporting flooding during heavy rains, including Lakes of Windermere at Peachtree-Reams Road and Oasis-Reams Road, both in the Horizon West area of west Orange; Orla Vista and Westside Manor in the Pine Hills area; and Bonny Brooke-Oakridge Road near John Young Parkway.
“Remember the forecast calls for heavy rains that will cause accessibility issues due to the predicted high water levels,” the mayor said. “Orange County has already been oversaturated with rain. Another word of caution. If you have encountered street flooding in the past during regular rainstorms, you may want to consider evacuating as well as the streets may prove difficult to be reached by emergency response teams.”
The storm already started to wreak havoc on Florida Tuesday night as two tornadoes were reported in Broward County, officials with the National Weather Service in Miami said. Another reported tornado left two injured and several displaced in Palm Beach County.
Hurricane Ian plowed past Cuba on Tuesday as a Category 3 hurricane with 125 mph winds, dropped some steam as it passed over land, but has been gaining back strength all day Tuesday. It is expected to continue to gain strength until it makes landfall on Florida’s southwest coast late Wednesday.
The NHC said life-threatening storm surge is expected along the Florida west coast, with the Sarasota and Naples region considered the highest risk. Hurricane force winds are expected to the western region of Central Florida by Wednesday morning with tropical storm conditions overnight. Widespread, prolonged river flooding is expected across Central Florida, the NHC said.
“This is a very powerful storm,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis during a Tuesday evening press conference. “It will weaken once it gets on shore and by the time it moves into the state. It’s not going to cut through the whole state as a Cat 4, but very well may make impact as a Cat 4, and that’s really, really serious business.”
DeSantis suspended tolls on Central Florida toll roads until further notice in preparation for the system, the Central Florida Expressway Authority announced Tuesday evening. As of 5 p.m., Tuesday, drivers will not have to pay tolls throughout the 125-mile expressway system that stretches across Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties.
Earlier models Tuesday had the storm potentially tracking right into Tampa Bay, but the consensus track has shifted farther south every six hours. He said the surge along the coast will still be dangerous, and the ensuing rain as well.
“It is going to produce major major flooding the storm when it impacts land,” he said.
He urged residents to keep themselves safe.
“We can rebuild property. We can fix infrastructure. You can fix your home. You don’t get a mulligan when your personal safety is at risk,” he said. “And so we know this thing is going to be hitting the state directly sometime tomorrow.”
Impacts will be felt far broader than where the hurricane ultimately makes landfall, DeSantis said, urging people along the Gulf coast to heed warnings and evacuation orders from their local officials. Also, he said, remember you don’t have to evacuate hundreds of miles, just seek higher, dryer ground.
“Mother nature is a fierce adversary,” he said.
For those evacuating, DeSantis announced that Expedia has set up a special page for inexpensive lodging options at expedia.com/florida
He said every one of the state’s long-term care facilities in the state has an active generator on site with the threat of major power outages this week.
“Make sure you’re executing your plan. This is imminent,” he said.
The continued shift in projected path Tuesday prompted the NHC to extend the hurricane warning along Florida’s west coast farther south so it now runs from Chokoloskee in the Everglades up to the Anclote River near Tarpon Springs including all of Tampa Bay as well as the Dry Tortugas. A tropical storm warning is in place from the Anclote River north to the Suwannee River, for all of the Florida Keys, and from Chokoloskee up the Florida East Coast to Altamaha Sound in Georgia as well as Lake Okeechobee and Florida Bay.
“Widespread considerable flash and urban flooding are expected mid-to-late week across central and northern Florida, southern Georgia, and coastal South Carolina, with significant, prolonged river flooding expected across central to northern Florida,” the NHC said. “Flash and urban flooding are also expected with rainfall across southern Florida through mid-week.”
County emergency officials in Seminole County said certain areas including along the Wekiva River and Lake Harney are among those at risk.
“Regardless of where the storm goes exactly, this will be a flooding event,” said Alan Harris, Seminole’s director of the office for emergency management. “We could see some areas receive up to 15 inches of rain.”
Harris urged residents who live along the Wekiva and Little Wekiva rivers, and along the St. Johns River, to prepare their properties for flooding. He compared Hurricane Ian’s impact on Central Florida as similar to 2017’s Hurricane Irma but lasting longer because of the storm forecast to stall. He calculated that the storm’s winds and rain will likely start by Wednesday afternoon and continue until early Friday.
“This is going to be a longer-term event,” he said.
Tornadoes are possible in Florida through Wednesday as well. Already on Tuesday, the National Weather Service issued tornado warnings several times in the Florida Keys and in the evening among Broward, Monroe, Miami-Dade, Collier, Hendry and Palm Beach counties.
The coast could see devastating effects from storm surge with a warning that from the middle of Longboat Key south to Bonita Beach, including Charlotte Harbor could see 8-12 feet with 5-8 feet north to Tampa Bay and south to Chokoloskee. Surge as the storm passes through the state is projected to be up to 4 feet along Florida’s East Coast including from Volusia County north into Georgia.
“The combination of storm surge and the tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline,” the NHC said.
DeSantis said Monday 5,000 National Guardsmen from Florida along with 2,000 more from neighboring states have been activated along with five urban search and rescue teams in preparation for the storm’s impact during a press conference from the State Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee.
“Floridians up and down the Gulf Coast should feel the impacts of this as up to 36 hours before the actual landfall due to the size of the hurricane,” DeSantis said. “This is a really, really big hurricane at this point, the diameter, the width of it’s about 500 miles wide. So you look at the cone and if you look at where they have the landfall going, I think the landfall is still Levy County, the impacts are going to be much much broader than that.”
“Make sure you have your plan in place,” he said.
The state activated its toll-free hotline for up-to-date information regarding Hurricane Ian at 1-800-342-3557.
In Central Florida, the gas station at 7235 University Blvd. east of Winter Park ran out of gas by 8 a.m. Tuesday morning after receiving a truck of fuel on Monday, said co-owner Khuram Pervez. He said he and his partners bought the former RaceTrac at the end of July and are rebranding as “RaceStop.”
“Yesterday [Monday] we were packed,” Pervez said. “Literally, the right side of the lane of the road, that’s where people were trying to come in because it was packed.”
He hoped to get more fuel on Tuesday evening. The station was also out of cases of water.
“We had about 30, 40 cases and they [were] all gone on I believe two days ago,” Pervez said.
On the Gulf Coast, preparing for the storm in Indian Rocks Beach in Pinellas County, Michael Faraone, 38, has never feared a storm as much as he fears Hurricane Ian. He worked Tuesday morning to board up Pajano’s Pizza, a restaurant his family has owned since 1971.
“This one is the most concerning,” he said. “This is no joke. It could be life-changing for everyone.”
He said he’s confident the Tampa Bay-area will make it through the storm. Customers and friends have already been stopping by the pizzeria to offer their help.
“It’s scary, but it’s good to see everyone come together,” Faraone said.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said 2.5 million people are now under evacuation orders. That includes Charlotte, Hillsborough, Lee, Levy, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas and Sarasota counties, which have all ordered a mandatory evacuation for residents from vulnerable areas.
Residents can plug in their addresses at floridadisaster.org/planprepare to find out what zone they’re in
Other counties will be issuing evacuation orders as well, and DeSantis urged residents to listen to their local officials and “heed their warnings.”
Beachside neighbors living in an evacuation zone agonized Tuesday whether to stay or go as Hurricane Ian threatened to send massive storm surge into Tampa Bay-area coastal communities.
Scott Shapiro, 52, who lives on the water in Indian Rocks Beach, said he isn’t evacuating yet because he thinks the storm will take a more southerly path that would spare Tampa Bay the worst surge.
“A lot of times people leave too early, and they get stuck in the middle of the state,” Shapiro said. “I don’t want to get stuck anywhere. I am going to stay here as long as possible.”
“As long as it hits south of us, I’m good,” he said. “I’m worried about the water.”
Others boarded up their homes and heeded evacuation orders. I-4 traffic was bumper to bumper headed out of Tampa Monday night.
Sheila Couch was preparing to leave her rental property near the ocean and ride out the storm with a friend and her parents in The Villages.
“She said she is worried about her neighbors who aren’t leaving.
“Everybody helps each other out,” she said. “We all went and did sandbags together.”
As Ian’s center moved into the Gulf, official media began showing scenes of destruction in the country’s world-famous tobacco belt. The Cubadebate website showed photos of devastation at the Finca Robaina cigar producer, where wood-and-thatch roofs were smashed to the ground, and floodwaters flowed through the town of San Juan y Martinez.
More than 1 million Cubans were without power Tuesday morning, including all of the western provinces of Pinar del Rio and Artemisa. There were no reports of deaths.
President Joe Biden this week declared an emergency, authorizing the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief and provide assistance to protect lives and property.
NASA decided Monday to roll its $4.1 billion Artemis I mission rocket back to the safety of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, which it completed Tuesday morning.
Across Central Florida, schools began shutting down Tuesday with many planned to be out through at least Thursday.
By Tuesday, Central Florida public schools had decided to close for some or part of the week with Osceola closed Tuesday-Thursday, Lake with early dismissal Tuesday and closed Wednesday-Friday, Orange closed Wednesday-Friday, Seminole closed Wednesday-Friday, Volusia closed Wednesday-Thursday, Polk closed Tuesday-Wednesday and Brevard County closed Wednesday-Thursday. Statewide, you can check https://www.fldoe.org/em-response/storm-info.stml for updates.
Valencia College, Lake-Sumter State College and Seminole State College all will cancel classes this week because of the storm, according to the Florida Department of Education. Valencia, which serves Orange and Osceola counties, is holding classes Tuesday but will be closed Wednesday and Thursday. Eight of Florida’s 12 public universities plan shutdowns this week, too, including the University of Central Florida, Florida State University, the University of Florida and the University of South Florida. Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach closed Monday with no return date set yet. Rollins College in Winter Park, announced the campus will close at 5 p.m. Wednesday; with residential halls to close at 4 p.m. Wednesday, and all staying closed Thursday and Friday for damage assessment.
As far as theme parks go, Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, SeaWorld Orlando and Legoland Florida announced Tuesday they would be closed Wednesday and Thursday. Busch Gardens Tampa said it would close Tuesday through Thursday. In Brevard, Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will be closed Wednesday and Thursday while other events around Central Florida have been canceled.
Orlando International Airport said it would shut down operations at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. Orlando Sanford International Airport announced Tuesday it ill close after the final flight out scheduled to depart at 4 p.m. Tuesday. Officials asked passengers with travel scheduled through SFB to contact their airline.
Staff writers Skyler Swisher, Jeffrey Schweers, Katie Rice, Ryan Gillespie, Austin Fuller, Nelly Ontiveros, Stephen Hudak, Leslie Postal, Amanda Rabines and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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