CHRISTIANNEWS.COM.- Hurricane Ian is gaining strength in the Gulf of Mexico and is headed for a potentially catastrophic blow to Florida starting Wednesday.
Ian rapidly intensified into a major hurricane overnight Sunday and then made landfall in western Cuba two hours later.
Hurricane Ian has grown in size in the last 24 hours and has begun to hit South Florida. Ian’s center is over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico after traversing western Cuba.
Flooding from storm surge, heavy rains and damaging winds battered Cuba’s western provinces Monday through Tuesday in what was the first Category 3 landfall in Cuba’s far west in 14 years, the Weather portal reported.
Ian is completing a cycle of eyewall replacement, which kept the hurricane’s intensity stable Tuesday, but also caused the storm to increase in size.
Rainbands containing gusty winds lash parts of the Peninsula and the Florida Keys. Winds have been blowing from 40 to 80 miles per hour in Key West on Tuesday.
Ian has produced the third highest storm surge in over 100 years in Key West. Ian will be a large and dangerous major hurricane as it approaches the Florida coast with potentially catastrophic, life-threatening impacts.
Storm surge flooding could begin in West Florida this Wednesday. Peak storm surge, possibly up to 10 feet in height, will occur near and south of where the center makes landfall in western Florida later on Wednesday or Thursday. That could be between Longboat Key and Bonita Beach, including Charlotte Harbor.
Trajectory
Hurricane conditions are possible from northeast Florida to parts of South Carolina on Thursday and Friday, and a hurricane watch has been issued for that area.
On the forecast track, the center of Ian is expected to move inland within the hurricane warning area in a few hours, move over central Florida tonight and Thursday morning, and emerge over the western Atlantic at late Thursday.
Ian is forecast to turn north on Friday and approach the northeast coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina by Friday night, the Tallahassee Democrat reported.
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