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
storm gets there a little bit sooner than even expected. we have to keep in mind, as derrick noted, this is a massive storm system. cloud field 700 miles across. these tropical storm force winds 140 miles away from the center. so, even if you are not near the system, 40 miles away from, you are going to feel tropical conditions. and that s the concern. and that s why our friends across orlando, disney world shutting down operations over the next 24 hours because of the system. and the impact will have. back this morning, you re going to see these tropical force winds as we transition into the early morning hours of wednesday, pushing in towards this region. so again, the impacts wide reaching. the storm surge threat a little further to charlotte harbour, john. pedram, thank, you appreciate the forecast there, and derek, we appreciate the live report from bradenton, florida, as well. in many parts of florida, police and fire departments, as well as other emergency responders, will soo
direct hit is not necessarily going to cause flooding. a slow-moving storm s predicted stall just off the coast of tampa bay starting wednesday evening. going to be in our rivers, so to be in our streams, it s gonna be in our canals. it s going to be in our storm water drains and ditches. sandbag locations around tampa closed today at 2:00. residents doing what they can before heading out. i would say were light. but we are we think that if it is a storm surge issue, we will try to seal the openings of the house. former florida congressman jim davis and his wife are not taking chances. they re prepping their house and getting out. i m not a very good gambler. and it s a bit of a gamble if you do not take it seriously. the word storm surge is something we heard over and over. steady officials are concerned that people will try to drive through water as it starts to rise throughout the city. if you look at hospitals and how they re preparing, you can see those barricades ha