By Tim Stelloh and Chantal Da Silva -
NBC News
Hurricane Ian strengthened into a Category 3 storm early Tuesday as it made landfall in western Cuba, US officials said.
It made landfall just southwest of the city of La Coloma in Pinar del Río province around 4:30 a.m. ET, with maximum sustained winds of 125 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said in an update. Tuesday morning.
[They order the evacuation of more than 300,000 people in Tampa and its surroundings due to the danger of Ian]
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency, warning that Ian could hit the state as a Category 4 hurricane, packing winds of more than 130 miles per hour (209 kilometers per hour).
Impact is expected in Tampa Bay on Wednesday.
"That's going to cause a lot of storm surge," DeSantis said.
“We are going to have floods.
A bunch of different impacts,” he stated.
"I'm scared": Cubans protect themselves as best they can from the imminent arrival of the hurricane
Sept.
26, 202202:11
Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated from Pinar del Río as authorities dispatched emergency and medical personnel ahead of the storm's arrival this week, The Associated Press news agency reported.
Two hours to the east, in Havana, fishermen pulled out their boats, city workers unclogged storm drains, and residents expressed alarm at the prospect of flooding, according to the AP.
[This is how Hurricane Ian's wingspan is seen from the International Space Station]
“I hope that we are spared this one, because it would be the end of us,” Abel Rodrigues, 54, told the AP.
“We already have very little,” he recalled.
Workers remove a boat from the water in the bay of Havana, Cuba, on Monday, September 26, 2022.Milexsy Duran / AP
On Monday, Ian passed over the nearby Cayman Islands without significant damage.
Emergency officials issued an "all clear" notification at 3pm local time, with Prime Minister Wayne Panton saying the British territory was "very fortunate to have been spared the worst of a potentially very serious storm".
The latest on Hurricane Ian:
It was moving northwest at 13 miles per hour (21 kilometers per hour) on Monday night, about 105 miles east-southeast of the western tip of Cuba, with maximum sustained winds increasing to 105 mph (168 kilometers per hour). hour).
Forecasters expect Ian to hit Florida's west coast as a major hurricane beginning Tuesday.
Cuba is evacuating 50,000 people in Pinar del Río province, where it has sent medical and emergency personnel and is taking steps to protect food and other crops in warehouses.
The center of the hurricane passed just west of the Cayman Islands on Monday, but no major damage had been recorded there.
As the storm headed for Florida, oil companies evacuated workers from deepwater rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, airports in Tampa and Pinellas County announced they would close Tuesday, and American Airlines announced travel waivers for people flying to or from 20 airports in Florida and the Caribbean.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers announced that the team was temporarily moving its operations to Miami-Dade County.
[This is how Fiona hit the Turks and Caicos Islands as a category 4 hurricane]
Residents of Florida's Gulf Coast stocked up on food and prepared with sandbags and plywood for their windows.
Hundreds of thousands of people are under evacuation orders.
"This storm is trending down, which means it could potentially stay on top of us for 47 hours," Cathie Perkins, Pinellas County's director of Emergency Management, predicted, Tampa's NBC affiliate WFLA reported.
"That's a lot of rain, and it's not going to drain quickly," he said.
