hello, and welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m john vause, at the cnn center in atlanta. as we head into the midnight hour on the u.s. east coast, almost the entire state of florida is bracing for the impact of hurricane ian, a monster storm stressing 500 miles across. which earlier made landfall on cuba, blocking out the eyelids electricity grid and causing a nationwide blackout. 11 million people right now are in the dark, waiting for morning to assess the damage. as of, now there are no reports of fatalities. since leaving cuba, ian has grown in strength, fueled by the warm waters of the gulf of mexico, as it heads towards florida, now category 3, with sustained winds of 135 miles per hour. along with life-threatening storm surge, florida is facing catastrophic flooding and strong powerful winds. all they, long tuesday, residents across the state braced for the hurricane to make landfall. now expected the first forecast, and further south.
that will allow for an earlier arrival of the strongest winds. and it s going to give last time for major hurricane eta to weaken. so, we are anticipating a powerful, using the words for the national hurricane center, catastrophic wind damage storm. and the potential for incredible amounts of storm surge along the coastline of where we are located, john? derek, thank you, we appreciate that update there from bradenton, florida. let s go to pedram javaheri, falling all this at the cnn weather center. ian was expected to make landfall in venice, and then around the bradenton area where derek is. now it s around , further to the south. why is it keep changing? and what are we expecting right? now john, every time we get an update from the national hurricane center, precisely showing exactly what you. said just avoid it further towards the east or the south. and atmosphere certainly changed. you ll notice the storm surge threats remain large. and energy now shifted able further to
calls for evacuation growing louder and more urgent as hurricane ian bows down on. florida the category 3 storm has already slammed into cuba, leaving a path of destruction on the western side of the island. also causing a nationwide blackout. more than 11 million people right now in the dark until morning. officials say electricity will be stored in the day ahead. ian is expected to make landfall in florida in the coming hours, between sarasota and port charlotte as a category 3 or category 4 hurricane. u.s. president joe biden has promised federal support for areas impacted by ian. i just spoke this morning with areas likely to be hit. the mayors of tampa, st. pete s, and clearwater. all of them, all of them are in the storm s path. and they are focused on the safety of their communities, and they are doing everything they can to get people out of harm s way. i told each of them in conversation separately,
conditions almost across the entire state of florida. so, certainla big story over the next 24 hours. and then some, i guess, pedram, thank you, we appreciate. it still ahead here on cnn, another phoon making landfall. noru bring the threat of major flooding to vietnam, we ll be on the coastal areas. we ll have the very latest, up next.
but we know that lisa hundred thousand were evacuated from the coastal areas of da nang, , just before landfall, the vulnerable in particular were taken to shelters. we also know it s a fairly heavy fishing area so there s more than 11,000 fishermen in the area. officials banned all of them from going out to. see others concern about whether livelihoods will have been destroyed along there as well. now, we re waiting for official results as to whether there has been significant damage. at this point, what we re seeing on social media is that trees, power lines are down. we re also seeing some flooding, roads blocked. but we ll have to wait for a better assessment. it is expected to further weekend as it crosses vietnam and further into southeast asia as well. but this is, as you mentioned, the same typhoon, the super typhoon at that point that hit the philippines. now we saw a rapid intensification of that particular typhoon saturday