At 11 a.m. ET (1500 GMT), Ian was about 50 miles (80 km) southwest of Punta Gorda, Florida, with sustained winds of 250 km/h, the US National Hurricane Center said.
That was just a Category 5 designation, which is the heaviest storm rating with sustained winds of at least 157 mph, though Ian was expected to ramp up after hitting land, the center said.
The hurricane was expected to crash into Florida at about 2:00 p.m. (1800 GMT) in Charlotte County, about 100 miles south of Tampa and just north of Fort Myers. The region is home to miles of sandy beaches, numerous resort hotels and numerous mobile home parks, a favorite with retirees and holidaymakers alike.
In the afternoon, the center said the storm’s eyewall, just outside the center, was moving toward the coast at the islands of Sanibel and Captiva, which form a barrier west of Fort Myers. It also issued a rare “extreme wind warning” that could signal the approach of a tornado there.
In Venice, a coastal town of nearly 24,000 people, halfway between Tampa and Fort Myers, rain and wind were already fierce before noon. Many streets were flooded and the steady storm bent palm trees at a 45-degree angle and shredded billboards and road signs.
Forecasters say Ian would unleash wind-driven high surf, torrential rains that could set storm surges up to 18 feet (3.7 meters), along with intense thunderstorms and possible tornadoes. The storm’s outer bands already brought heavy wind and rain to much of the Gulf Coast on Wednesday morning.
“I wish this wasn’t a forecast about to come true. This is a storm that we’ll be talking about for many years to come, a historic event,” said Ken Graham, director of the National Weather Service.
More than 200,000 homes and businesses were without power in Florida on Wednesday afternoon, Governor Ron DeSantis said, adding that that number was “a drop in the ocean for what’s to come in the next 24-48 hours.”
Earlier this week, authorities told more than 2.5 million residents to evacuate. Doug Toe from Venice was one of those residents who chose to ignore warnings and stay put. Walking through the rain on Wednesday morning to see a friend’s house weather the storm, Toe admitted he’d never seen a storm of this magnitude, but was unimpressed by the prospects it could near his neighborhood. destroy.
“You have to be vigilant because you never know what’s going to happen to it,” he said. “I remain vigilant, but try not to worry.”
Hotels along Interstate Highway 75, which runs up and down Florida’s west coast, were packed with people seeking shelter. This area is dotted with mobile home parks, which most residents had abandoned and sought refuge in local schools and other facilities used as emergency shelters. The many assisted living apartments in the area were also largely evacuated.
Heartis Venice, an assisted living residence north of Venice, was an exception. Of the 107 residents, 98 decided to take shelter on site and continue to receive care with the help of staff and some family members, said general manager Michelle Barger. The facility, which opened two years ago, was built to withstand a Category 5 storm.
The facility had enough food and water for more than seven days, as well as all the drugs and supplies needed to provide services, Barger said.
“Our community is on lockdown. We are safe and we are prepared for this,” she said. “We feel quite confident and safe, as do the residents and families and team members here.”
HEAT PLANET
Climate change makes hurricanes wetter, windier and more intense. There’s also some evidence that it causes storms to travel more slowly, meaning they can dump more water in one place, scientists say.
“The rapid intensification of Hurricane Ian could be another example of how a warming planet is changing hurricanes,” said Kait Parker, a meteorologist and climate scientist at IBM’s weather.com. “Research shows that we see this much more often than in decades past.”
Overnight and Wednesday morning, Hurricane Ian pounded the Florida Keys island chain toward the southernmost shores of the state’s Gulf Coast with heavy rains and gusts of 40 mph, the NWS reported.
On Tuesday, the storm swept across Cuba, cutting off power to 11 million people and devastating the western end of the island with strong winds and flooding. At the beginning of Wednesday, the state electricity provider said it had begun restoring power to the eastern end of the island.