hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us from the united states and all over the world. you re watching cnn newsroom. i m kristie lu stout. it is now 2 am on the u.s. east coast. almost the entire state of florida is bracing for the impact of hurricane ian, a monster storm stretching 700 miles across and getting stronger. causing a nationwide blackout in cuba, ian is turning in the gulf of mexico as a category three hurricane with sustained winds just shy of a category four. and along with life-threatening storm surge, florida is facing catastrophic flooding and powerful winds. now, conditions will deteriorate throughout the night ahead of the expected landfall in the coming hours. more than two and a half million people are under some form of evacuation warning. state authorities say the time to leave is quickly running out. people in southwest florida, this is going to likely make landfall as a category 4 hurricane. there will be catastrophic flooding, and life-threat
about people who decided not to evacuate and they try to ride this out. ryan young, cnn, tampa, florida. okay we have retired lieutenant general jeffrey buchanan on the line again he d, . , lead the u.s. army response efforts for five major hurricanes. sir, thank you again for joining us. let s continue on that point that you are raising before you got cut off. florida has issued an evacuation order to millions of people. and for those who still refused to evacuate, in a storm like this, what is your message to them? please, my message to them, kristie, is please listen to the leadership. the local leadership. florida has a great emergency management system. and a very experienced set of first responders, they know what they are talking about. and when they are asking you to evacuate [inaudible] message. storm surge and flooding can be
entire year. these folks could see about half of that in the next couple of days. and notice where it highlights the white contours, from tampa, points eastward and all the way north word, to orlando, and the east side, where the system tracks. that is an incredible amount of rainfall, and will lead to catastrophic flooding. certainly, coastal committees will see a storm surge. the localized flooding inland is going to be the big story for this storm system. and again, it is far from over because we do believe it is going to strengthen before it makes landfall in the coming hours. wow, this is a huge storm, a strengthening storm, and a imposes multiple threats. pedram java harry, we thank you for your reporting. we ll check in with you soon. joining us now is retired general jeffrey buchanan. he led the u.s. response efforts for five major hurricanes. and joins us now live. sarah, thank you for joining us here at cnn. hurricane ian is set to make landfall in a matter of hours. at thi
fort myers and clearwater, including all of the tampa bay area, are under a storm surge warning. storm surge is always one of our largest concerns here in southwest florida. you know, 90% of fatalities occurr due to water. charlotte harbour and the cities of port charlotte of punta gorda are expecting the highest storm surge, with 8 to 12 feet possible. around tampa, a record storm surges expected. a storm that slows down for 24 to 48 hours, and just continuously dumps rain into the tampa bay area is devastating. hurricane ian is expected to dump at least 2 to 3 months worth of rainfall by friday. possibly as much as 24 inches of rain in tampa and west central florida. it only takes 18 inches of water to be a life-threatening situation. tampa s airport taking no chances. at 5 pm today, no more commercial flights. evacuation orders expanding since monday, with shelters open for those without other
from a health. and in tampa, they re warning residents not to take risks as hurricane ian approaches. cnn s ryan young has. more good, hey, we re coming by and letting everyone know we re in a mandatory evacuation situation. the tampa bay area, in its final hours of hurricane preparations. tampa bay police making last-ditch efforts to warn residents to leave flood zones now. we re reinforcing the idea that you re in an area that you need to evacuate. this is not a drill. this is not the time to stay. serious warnings to residents here. this vulnerable area expected to be in the crosshairs of hurricane ian as it barrels towards the west coast of florida. we have over 120 miles of coastline just in the city of tampa. at least 2. 5 million floridians under various evacuation orders. it s a storm that s predicted to cause water damage like none before it. we re talking about 10 or 15