Hurricane Ian is taking aim at Cuba and Florida this week.
The Category 3 storm is bringing hurricane-force winds, mudslides and a life-threatening storm surge to western Cuba.
Ian made landfall early Tuesday in Cuba’s Pinar del Rio, where 50,000 people were evacuated.
According to the National Hurricane Center, the hurricane was located about 10 miles north-northeast of the city.
It was moving toward the north near 12 miles per hour, with the motion expected to continue.
Maximum sustained winds were estimated near 125 mph with higher gusts.
The center of Hurricane Ian was expected to emerge over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico in a couple of hours.
Ian is projected to reach top winds of 140 miles per hour.
On the forecast track, the center of the storm is expected to pass west of the Florida Keys later Tuesday.
It will approach the west coast of Florida on Wednesday, through the evening.
The storm is bringing the danger of a life-threatening storm surge and a warning has been issued.
HURRICANE IAN STRIKES CUBA, STRENGTHENS TO CATEGORY 3 AS IT TARGETS FLORIDA
The highest risk extends from Fort Myers to Tampa Bay.
In addition, heavy rainfall will increase across the Florida Keys and South Florida on Tuesday and hurricane-force winds are expected in west-central Florida beginning late Wednesday morning.
More than 2,000 people in the Sunshine State were without power on Tuesday morning, according to outage tracker PowerOutage.US.
Gov. Ron DeSantis – who declared a statewide emergency – warned that Ian could intensify into a Category 4 hurricane before reaching his state.
“You have a significant storm that may end up being a Category 4 hurricane,” he said at a news conference Monday. “That’s going to cause a huge amount of storm surge. You’re going to have flood events. You’re going to have a lot of different impacts.”
HURRICANE IAN NEARS FLORIDA: STORM SAFETY TIPS AND HOW TO PREPARE
He said the state has suspended tolls around the Tampa Bay area and mobilized 5,000 Florida state National Guard troops, with an additional 2,000 on standby in nearby states.
Florida residents lined up for hours in Tampa to collect bags of sand and cleared store shelves.
Tampa and St. Petersburg could get their first direct hit by a major hurricane since 1921.
Some evacuations in Hillsborough County were beginning on Monday afternoon.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers announced it was relocating football operations to the Miami area on Tuesday.
President Biden also declared an emergency.
Damaging winds and flooding are expected across the peninsula, reaching into Georgia and South Carolina into the weekend.
Ian became a hurricane early Monday morning.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
