the storm right now packing maximum sustained winds of 125 miles per hour. it is expected to strengthen further over the next 24 hours, and that s alarming to hear. ian is expected to hit florida s west coast late wednesday into thursday, and nearly 7 million people along the coast, including really all of tampa bay, a facing the risk of a life-threatening storm surge there. and people, they are all being urged to get out of harm s way and to do it now. tampa s mayor warning residents, if you can leave, just leave now. those are his words. florida s governor, ron desantis, announcing that the tampa bay airport will be closed starting tonight at 5:00 eastern time. he also expect he has also expected, desantis to speak at any moment from tallahassee. we ll give you detainee on those preparations from the storm and bring you his update live in just moment. we are covering this dangerous storm. the only way cnn can. let s go first to our carlos flores, who joins us in tampa
traffic cameras last night, interstate 4 showing folks trying to get to the orlando area. that was bumper-to-bumper around 10:00 and 11:00 at night. you imagine we ll still see a lot of that traffic as this storm inches closer to this part of florida. john? all right. carlos suarez in gulfport, thank you very much. this morning, u.s. stock futures are higher after all three major indexes started the week in major decline. the dow slipped into its first bear market since the pandemic. that is defined as a drop of 20% or more from a recent high. the index plunged more than 300 points amid investor concerns about central bank efforts to slow inflation. traders concerned about a too strong u.s. dollar. the british pound hit a record low against the dollar means u.s. companies doing a lot of business abroad could be hurt as the profit they make in other countries will decrease in dollar terms. first on cnn, a new bank of america sponsored survey finds
here, traffic cameras showing interstate 4, which connects the tampa bay area out into the central part of florida, the orlando area, that showed cars bumper-to-bumper at around tern a 10:00 and 11:00 at night. one woman at a sandbag distribution site said she made reservations for her family, going to orlando. a lot of emergency officials telling folks, look. just because there s an evacuation order doesn t mean you have to leave the state. just get to safer ground, higher ground. so they want folks to either head to one of these emergency shelters. if you can t get there, go ahead and make your way a little bit more inland. again, a lot of folks leaving the tampa bay area heading central, the central part of florida. most likely orlando being their destination. john? carlos, the storm surge the concern. the most important thing is to get inland. carlos suarez in gulfport, thanks so much. right now in cuba, the powerful storm is slamming the
timing, most likely arrives southern end of the area by this evening, early morning hours wednesday. advancing northward into the tampa bay region by wednesday morning. really you have today to get to where you re going to be to ride out the storm. michael what is this damage looking like as the storm progresses? well, you know, in terms of storm surge, it can obviously flood out homes, businesses. put roads and infrastructure under water. the winds associated with the core of the hurricane where it moves onshore as a category 3 storm can cause damage to homes, damage to trees it, power lines. could be widespread power outages and flooding rainfall that happens on top of that. really looking at a multihazard, multiday-long event in much of the western and the central florida peninsula. michael brennan with noaa. helpful to have you. thank you so much. thanks. go to cnn s carlos suarez in gulfport, florida, on the west coast there in pinellas county. what are you seeing this
morning? reporter: well, this morning we saw that second mandatory evacuation order just go into effect here in pinellas county. the other one went into effect yesterday and all of this impacts the barrier islands in the tampa bay area. we are in gulfport where a number of businesses have already started the process of boarding up. this one shop, one, two, three sheets of plywood up and also sandbags to a corner out here. i imagine going to move these a little later on to the entrance to this store and then just next door to me owner started the process getting plywood up on his business. he was telling us a few minutes ago the last time this area was hit by a storm, this part of gulfport saw about three to four inches of rain get into these shops. over in hillsborough county, the folks there, 43 hurricane shelters opened since the evacuation order went into effect at 2:00 yesterday. the emergency officials here are telling everyone to go ahead and just try to get further inland.