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Videos: US Airports Close, Millions Told to Evacuate as Hurricane Ian Barrels Toward Florida

© CIRA/NOAAThis GOES-East GeoCcolor satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration captures Hurricane Ian on Tuesday, September 27, 2022, as it churns over the Gulf of Mexico.
This GOES-East GeoCcolor satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration captures Hurricane Ian on Tuesday, September 27, 2022, as it churns over the Gulf of Mexico.  - Sputnik International, 1920, 28.09.2022
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In 2021, Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana, causing upwards of $75 billion in damages. Now, two weeks after Hurricane Fiona devastated portions of the Caribbean and eastern Canada, photos of sandbags shoring up sidewalks and lining exterior doors are circulating as the Tampa Bay area prepares for Hurricane Ian – this season’s second named hurricane.
Hurricane Ian continued to grow stronger on Tuesday as it entered Florida’s Gulf Coast, with the National Weather Service bulletins projecting life-threatening storm surge, or abnormal rises in water brought on by strong winds, of over 9 feet along Florida’s western coastline.
The ninth named storm of the season, Ian was upgraded to a "major hurricane" (meaning a Category 3 or higher) on Tuesday morning, prompting airports in the southern portion of the state to halt all departures. Central Florida airports announced plans to halt flights starting on Wednesday, when Ian is expected to make landfall in the Sarasota area – though the timing and intensity could still change.
The US National Weather Service (NWS) said in a release that the storm is likely to gain strength and lose speed while in the Gulf of Mexico, prompting both Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to declare states of emergency and a number of counties along the Florida coastline to issue evacuation orders.

“Floridians up and down the Gulf coast should feel the impacts of this,” DeSantis said at a press conference on Tuesday. “This is a really, really big hurricane at this point.”

DeSantis has activated 5,000 Florida Guardsmen ahead of Ian's landfall.
Images and video of congested traffic heading out of the Tampa area, which hasn’t experienced a major hurricane since 1921, toward Orlando circulated on Twitter as citizens heeded evacuation orders, which urged over 2.5 million people to find higher ground.

“This is a life-threatening situation,” the NWS said. “Persons located within these areas should take all necessary actions to protect life and property from rising waters and the potential for other dangerous conditions. Ian is forecast to approach the west coast of Florida as a dangerous major hurricane. This is not the time to stay. We are talking about a 10 to 15-foot surge.”

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor held a news briefing on Tuesday morning as the hurricane crossed over Cuba and entered the Gulf Coast, echoing the NWS warning. "This is going to be potentially the worst-case scenario for the Tampa Bay area,” Castor said. “A slow-moving storm right off our coast is going to bring a devastating amount of water to the Tampa Bay area."
Ian would be the first major hurricane to slam into Florida since the Category 5 storm known as Hurricane Michael hit the state in 2018, causing $25 billion in damage and killing at least 45 people.
Damaging winds and flooding are expected to continue to migrate as far north as South Carolina through Friday, according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC), with forecasters projecting surges of up to 10 feet depending on the tide.

‘I Hope We Escape This:’ Ian Slams Cuba With 125MPH Winds

Hurricane Ian made landfall in western Cuba early Tuesday, resulting in what the NHC called “significant wind and storm surge impacts” that damaged homes, tobacco fields, and forced evacuations.
Late Tuesday, Lazaro Guerra, who serves as the technical director of the Electric Union of Cuba, detailed that island's electrical grid had collapsed after the cyclone tore through Cuba. Guerra has underscored that officials are working to restore the system, and will be working through the night.
About 50,000 people in Cuba’s Pinar del Rio province were moved to safer locations, with some 6,000 individuals placed in state-run shelters, according to local authorities. Early details of some of the damage circulated online as locals who remained to record the damage shared photos on social media of the decimated downtown area, with toppled buildings and fuel pumps scattered several feet from their concrete moorings.
In El Fanguito, a low-income neighborhood near Havana’s Almendares River, residents voiced their anxiety. "I hope we escape this one because it would be the end of us. We already have so little," health worker Abel Rodrigues said.
Though the hurricane caused lots of damage on the island, leaving one million without power, there have been few injuries and one death reported. A woman, 43, was killed after the walls of her home fell to the storm.
Mayelin Suarez, a resident of Pinar del Rio, called the night the storm hit "the darkest of her life."
"We almost lost the roof off our house," she told Reuters. "My daughter, my husband and I tied it down with a rope to keep it from flying away."
Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel visited the area and vowed the region would recover, his officials tweeted.
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