A big swath of Florida’s Gulf Coast is underneath hurricane and storm surge watches and warnings Monday from Category 2 Hurricane Ian, which whipped up in a single day and is predicted to show into a significant storm because it heads towards a possible first landfall in western Cuba.
The newest forecast at 5 p.m. Eastern time from the National Hurricane Center confirmed Hurricane Ian crossing north of Tampa Bay as a robust Category 3 storm and making landfall within the Big Bend as a Category 1 or 2 storm — pushing storm surge that would attain as excessive as 10 ft in spots.
But no matter any future small shifts within the observe, which forecasters warned may proceed for the subsequent few days, a lot of Florida’s Gulf Coast, from Naples northward, faces a significant danger of coastal flooding.
The Tampa Bay metro space, house to about 3 million folks, is especially weak to coastal flooding from hurricanes.
Mandatory evacuation orders are actually in place for the riskiest spots in Tampa Bay, Pinellas and Charlotte Counties to the north and Manatee County to the south, with voluntary evacuations additionally in place for areas with barely much less danger.
More orders will virtually actually comply with for different elements of the west coast, together with Levy County, website of potential landfall underneath the present observe. Levy is sparsely populated, with simply over 40,000 folks. All counties in Florida stay underneath a state of emergency.
Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended some tolls within the Tampa Bay space, Polk County, elements of the Panhandle and Alligator Alley.
Southeast Florida is not within the cone, however the Lower Keys additionally stay underneath a tropical storm warning and the National Hurricane Center warned the area will see heavy rains this week, in addition to gusty squalls from the sturdy storm.
New tropical storm watches have been issued Monday night north of Tampa Bay, and Tampa Bay and areas to the south have been upgraded to hurricane warnings, together with the Dry Tortugas.
Overnight, Ian grew to become a well-organized hurricane, and forecasters count on it can quickly intensify to a monster — Category 3 — on Monday earlier than crossing Cuba’s west coast early Tuesday.
In a Monday afternoon information convention in Miami, Deanne Criswell, high administrator for FEMA, urged Floridians to evacuate if requested and to maintain an in depth eye on the storm.
“We are ready,” she stated. “We will be here through the response.”
As of the 5 p.m. replace, Hurricane Ian was a Category 2 storm about 155 miles southeast of the western tip of Cuba. Its most sustained winds had began to choose up, now reaching 100 mph, and its wind area expanded to 115 miles from the middle. It was heading north-northwest at 13 mph.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”