Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gave a briefing forward of Hurricane Ian’s anticipated landfall later Wednesday, warning residents in a number of western counties that it’s “not doable to securely evacuate.”
“This can be a main, main storm. It is one thing that we knew was going to be important. The strengthening of this over the final night time has been actually, actually important,” DeSantis stated.
“[It] doubtlessly … might make landfall as a Class 5 however clearly it is a very highly effective, main hurricane that is going to have main impacts each on influence in southwest Florida, however then because it continues to work by the state, it’ll have main, main impacts in phrases of wind, in phrases of rain, in phrases of flooding. So that is going to be a nasty, nasty day, two days. In all probability, we predict now, it will likely be exiting the peninsula someday on Thursday,” he stated.
DeSantis warned the best danger is from Collier County as much as Sarasota County, with landfall anticipated in Charlotte County.
“In case you are in any of these counties, it is not doable to securely evacuate. It is time to hunker down and put together for this storm. This can be a highly effective storm that must be handled such as you would deal with” a twister approaching your property, DeSantis stated.
Not less than 40,000 energy outages have been reported, DeSantis stated. “Exterior of southwest Florida, crews are responding to these energy outages,” he stated.
In accordance with the governor, “there are over 30,000 linemen staged and prepared for energy restoration efforts throughout the state of Florida.”
He warned residents to heed warnings from native officers and to not go exterior till the storm has handed.
“Even when it appears calm, wait to guarantee that the storm has really handed. As soon as the storm has handed and it is protected to go exterior, I urge you to be cautious. Keep away from downed energy strains. Keep away from standing water. Keep away from broken bushes. In case you are utilizing a generator for energy, guarantee that is being operated exterior your property. Don’t function that indoors. After which do not drive in flooded streets,” he stated.
DeSantis additionally stated that there are 5,000 Florida Nationwide Guard members activated, in addition to 2,000 from neighboring states.