dpa
Miami, Florida
Ian strengthened early on Wednesday into an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane, with 250 kilometre-per-hour (155-mile-per-hour) winds just a tick below Cat 5 strength and a wind field that covered almost half of the state. The hurricane is forecast to whip most of Florida with catastrophic winds, flooding rain and life-threatening storm surge as it gets closer to a west coast landfall Wednesday afternoon.
The storm surge predictions soared overnight to 3.7 to 5.5 metres (12 to 18 feet) for Englewood to Bonita Bay, a forecast so high a new color was added to the National Hurricane Center’s peak storm surge prediction map.
Wednesday morning, Ian’s outer bands were already battering Southwest Florida with gusts up to 120 km/h (75 mph). South Florida saw tornadoes overnight that flipped small airplanes and took down big trees, and Key West recorded one of its highest ever storm surge levels overnight.
Sea water still remained in many neighborhoods, including on sections of famed Duval Street and inside homes.
“The storm is here. It is imminent,” the state’s director of emergency management, Kevin Guthrie, said on the Weather Channel.
As of the 11 a.m. (1500 GMT) update from the National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Ian had maximum sustained winds near 250 km/h (155 mph) with higher gusts. To reach Cat 5, Ian needs to have maximum sustained winds of at least 253 km/h (157 mph).
Ian could still weaken before landfall but if not, it could rank among the most powerful storms to hit the United States.
Nine storms have reached Category 5 status while at sea but only four have made landfall at that strength in the U.S. - three of them in Florida. The most recent was Michael, which hammered the Panhandle in 2018. Andrew devastated South Miami-Dade in 1992 and an unnamed storm now known as the Labor Day hurricane swept the Florida Keys in 1935.
Camille roared into the Mississippi coastline in 1969. All four of those Cat 5 hurricanes were tropical storms three days before landfall.
Ian was about 72 km (45 miles) west-northwest of Naples and about 80 km (50 miles) south-southwest of Punta Gorda, the hurricane center said in an 11 a.m. update. The storm was moving north-northeast near 14.5 km/h (9 mph), a slight slowdown.
Ian’s hurricane-force winds are expected to reach much of Florida’s Gulf Coast Wednesday morning, which has a hurricane warning in effect from Chokoloskee to the Anclote River, including the Tampa Bay region.
However, the storm is expected to slow down as it gets closer to Florida’s western coast, before making landfall Wednesday afternoon somewhere between Fort Myers and Sarasota as a powerful Cat 4 hurricane that NOAA called “monstrous.” As of the 11 a.m. forecast, Ian’s center is heading to Port Charlotte and devastating wind damage is expected near the storm’s core.
Weakening is expected once it makes landfall, with the storm expected to move over Central Florida Wednesday night and Thursday morning and emerging over the western Atlantic by late Thursday.
The latest update from the hurricane center extended hurricane warnings on Florida’s northeast coats, a signal that Ian could be an intact hurricane as it crosses the state.
Storm surge totals jumped up overnight and again Wednesday morning.
The middle of Englewood to Bonita Beach, including Charlotte Harbor, is forecast to see the most storm surge, with 3.7 to 5.5 metres (12 to 18 feet) possible.
Bonita Beach south to Chokoloskee could see eight to 3.7 m (12 feet) of storm surge.
“No one alive has seen 12 feet of storm surge in that area, and many areas could take years to recover. Please be safe!” tweeted Eric Blake, a senior meteorologist for NHC.
Ian, which already devastated Cuba Tuesday when it was a Category 3 hurricane, is a large and powerful storm. The Cat 4 storm’s hurricane-force winds extend up to 72 km (45 miles) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend up to 282 km (175 miles).
That’s why all of Florida’s east coast, including South Florida, which has already been feeling some of Ian’s effects, particularly in the Keys, is under a tropical
storm warning. “As of 5am Wednesday, Ian’s area of hurricane-force winds is 2.9 times larger, and its area of tropical storm force winds is 2.3 times larger,” tweeted Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami.
