welcome back to our viewers and united states and around the world. i m john, those cnn center in atlanta. it is now 1 am on the u.s. u.s. east coast. the entire state of florida, embarrassing for the hurricane in. a massive storm stretching 100 miles across, which early made landfall on western cuba. knocking out the islands electricity grid causing a nationwide blackout. 11 million people right now in the dark waiting for more process to damage. as of this hour, no reports of any fatalities. since leaving cuba, it has gone in strength fueled by the warm waters of the gulf of mexico. as it heads to florida, now category three, sustained winds of about 120 miles per hour. along with life-threatening storm surge, florida is facing catastrophic flooding, strong powerful winds, all day long, tuesday, visitors across the state to make landfall, now expected sooner than first forecast, and further to the south. but in some parts, it has always been felt, conditions tore throughout
hurricane. this storm will only continue to intensify. if you want to leave, now is your last chance. the entire state is going to be touched by this storm. it s going to be in our stream. it s going to be in our canals. it s going to be in our stormwater drains and dishes. i m not scared. i m prepared though. you can already start to see what it is doing to the waters in the gulf just slamming these waves up against the sea wall right here. it is wednesday, september 28th. 4 a.m. here on the u.s. east coast where a monster category 3 hurricane is at this hour churning towards florida and parts of the state are already feeling the effects. now these are images from key west where major flooding is being reported and hurricane force winds and strong storm surge warnings are already out there on the coast. now right now it s all hands on deck. thousands of national guard members as well as urban search and rescue teams are mobilized ahead of the hurricane s expected
this update just moments ago. hurricane ian is a storm moving closer to floor at that s west coast bringing high winds, extremely heavy rain and life threatening storm surge flooding. already ian hitting key west with major storm surge flooding. more than 2 1/2 million people now under some level of evacuation warnings. officials escalating their urgent appeals to evacuate. if you are in an evacuation zone, your time to evacuate is coming to an end. you need to evacuate now. meteorologist chad myers is in the cnn weather center. chad, what s the latest on the predicted storm track here? it is still forecast to put all of that water into charlotte harbor, christine. this is and has been kind of looked at as a charrincharlie, s is not charlie. this is florida s katrina. charlie could almost fit inside the eye. the wind speeds of charlie were so significant but only in a small place. this storm has wind, surge, flooding, waves and even rainfall inside of florida of almost
of this hurricane. it could make landfall the next several hours and then work its way up the peninsula slowly, very slowly, bringing hurricane force winds here to tampa, to orlando before it heads out over the atlantic on the other side maybe sometime later tomorrow. obviously millions of people feeling the impact of this, a life threatening storm in some ways a near worst case scenario for some of the people south of here. there was an 8 a.m. update just in from the national hurricane center. i believe we have michael brennan at the national hurricane center to give us a sense of the very latest. sir, if you can hear me, where is ian, where is it going? it s located about 55 miles west of naples, we re expecting catastrophic impacts along the southwest border coast later today. the storm surge could be as high as 16 feet above ground level in the area near port charlotte, from inglewood down to the beach. can you walk me through the timeline from now over the next 24 ho
this storm will only continue to intensify. if you want to leave, as the governor has said, now is your last chance. we cannot send first responders into harm s way because you decided not to leave. 155 mile per hour winds. that is what hurricane ian is now producing as it bears down on florida s coast. i m john berman live in tampa this morning. brianna keilar is in washington. this is cnn s special live coverage of a storm that is getting more powerful by the minute. the national hurricane center just reported it had a plane flying through the center of this storm measuring sustained winds, sustained of 155 miles per hour. that is just 2 miles per hour short of a category 5 storm and it could still strengthen before it makes impact over the next few hours. expected to make landfall, direct landfall southwest of where i am south of where i am near the fort myers area. the wind speed just one of the major concerns here. the storm surge, which the wind speed only exacerbat