Hurricane Ian has moved near the Cayman Islands and western Cuba, where authorities are bracing for heavy rainfall and “devastating” wind, as the storm is expected to intensify further before hitting the US state of Florida as a major hurricane later this week.
The fast-growing storm was located about 160km (100 miles) west of Grand Cayman, barreling northwest towards Cuba with maximum sustained winds of 130km per hour (80 miles per hour), making it a Category 1 hurricane on a five-step scale.
“Devastating wind damage is possible where the core of Ian moves across western Cuba,” the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Monday morning.
Ian is forecasted to gain momentum over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, upgrading to a Category 4 hurricane before slamming into Florida on Wednesday.
“Please treat this storm seriously. It’s the real deal. This is not a drill,” Hillsborough County Emergency Management Director Timothy Dudley said during a Monday news conference on storm preparations in the US city of Tampa, Florida.
Authorities have urged residents to make preparations, and officials in the Cayman Islands, Cuba, and Florida have taken steps to brace for the effects of the hurricane.
Cuba over the weekend began evacuating tourists and some workers from Isla de la Juventud and Cayo Largo, off its southwestern coast, where the hurricane was expected to make landfall on Monday evening.
The country was also shutting down its train system in advance of the worst weather, and officials have placed the island’s western provinces under a hurricane alert and have announced plans for allocating food and evacuating people from low-lying areas.
At a bakery in the Cuban capital just after sunrise on Monday, the line for bread had swelled to nearly twice its normal length, occupying several blocks, as demand rose for basic goods before the storm.
“I’m buying bread now because later in the afternoon I won’t be able to leave my house,” said Guillermo Gomez, 79, as he waited to enter the bakery. “The water will be up to my knees.”
The hurricane appears set for a direct hit on the tobacco-growing province of Pinar del Rio, a more lightly populated area of the island dedicated primarily to farming and fishing.
“Cuba is expecting extreme hurricane force winds, also life-threatening storm surge and heavy rainfall,” NHC senior specialist Daniel Brown told The Associated Press news agency early on Monday.
On the Cayman Islands, Premier Wayne Panton said plywood and sandbags were being distributed. The island must “prepare for the worst and absolutely pray and hope for the best”, he said in a video posted on Sunday.
Cayman Islands airports halted operations on Sunday due to the hurricane, officials said, and the island’s weather service predicted waves of up to 4.3 metres (14 feet).
In the Tampa Bay area of Florida, which could experience a surge of up to 2.4 metres (7.9 feet) of ocean water and 250mm (9.8 inches) of rain, residents lined up at stores to buy sandbags and bottles of water.
Evacuations are expected, and up to 300,000 people could be evacuated from areas in Hillsborough County, county administrator Bonnie Wise said at a news conference on Monday. Schools have been closed through Thursday and are expected to open as emergency shelters.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency throughout Florida, and US President Joe Biden also declared an emergency over the hurricane, freeing up additional government resources to provide assistance.
A hurricane watch has been issued for Florida’s central western coast, including the Tampa Bay area, and flash flooding is possible in the Florida Keys and the Florida peninsula through midweek.
Northern Florida could also experience heavy rainfall, along with the Florida panhandle and the southeast United States.
A forecast on Monday morning stated that Tampa and St Petersburg could experience the first direct hit by a major hurricane in a century.
Bob Gualtieri, sheriff of Pinellas County, Florida, which includes St Petersburg, said in a briefing that nobody would be forced out of their homes, even if evacuation orders were mandatory. But he warned that those who refused to heed the warning would be alone.
“What it means is, we’re not going to come help you. If you don’t do it, you’re on your own.”
St Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch also urged residents not to ignore any evacuation orders. “This is a very real threat that this storm poses to our community,” Welch said.
Hurricane Fiona rocked Puerto Rico, Bermuda and Canada last week, with winds up to 140kmph (87mph) slamming Puerto Rico and leaving the island without power.
Eastern Canada also experienced power outages as a result of the storm, and the Canadian military has been mobilised to assist with recovery efforts.
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