almost the entire state of florida, think about that, is bracing for the impact of hurricane ian., a monster storm is expected, several hundred miles across, and getting stronger by the minute. that is after causing a nationwide blackout in cuba. ian is turning in the gulf of mexico as a category three hurricane with sustained wind of just shy of a category for. now, along with life- threatening storm surge, florida is facing catastrophic flooding and powerful wind. conditions will deteriorate throughout the night ahead of the expected level in the coming hours, more than 2 1/2 million people are under some form of evacuation at this hour. the window to leave is running out. even before the hurricane makes landfall, authorities are warning residents to be on alert for tornadoes overnight. these images show the impact earlier after a tornado hit the airport in south florida, causing significant damage to several aircraft hangers.
considered to be illegal protest. demanding power be restored. cuban officials ask for people s patience and said they hope to restore power, but acknowledged that the electrical situation on the island is, quote, located. patrick oppmann, cnn, havana. just ahead for us, cnn visits account libiberated by t ukrainian military. . we will show you what russian n forces left behind. a a mystery in the baltic sea. russian natural gas pipelines to europe are damaged and d leaking. is it sabotaged? what does it mean? we will have some answers, next. ipstation. now we re shippingr and we re saving a ton. go to shipstation.com /tv and get 2 months fe.
hurricane ian, to the west of havana, hundreds of thousands of people are without power, because electric cables and electric posts were knocked down by the storm. in havana. initially, officials said they took down power to the city s 2 million inhabitants, to keep from there being fires, and people from being electric kitted from fallen power lines. but, clearly, as of late tuesday night, officials are unable to restore power to cuba s capital, and to the rest of the island. this is extremely problematic for cuban officials, because four months, now, the islands aging power grid has been infected by blackouts, sometimes for days, which has led to residents of many cuban cities and towns taking to the streets in rare and what cuban officials
next couple of minutes, we will had towards charlotte. okay, we will try to continue to stay in touch with you in the coming hours and days. logan, it goes without saying, stay safe, and we will continue to watch this incredibly menacing storm. thank you so much. absolutely, thank you. in the meantime, cuban officials say it could be sometime before they know the full extent of the destruction from hurricane ian. power outages and instructor damage have made it difficult to reach some remote areas. patrick oppmann is in cuba with our report. reporter: cuba, and it s 11 million inhabitants are currently in a nationwide blackout. officials said, late tuesday night. after hurricane ian battered this island, according to officials, it damaged the islands a logical system to a degree that it led to rolling blackouts across this island, even in central and eastern cuba, but were not affected by the wind and rain from
approaches these coastal communities. that s really going to be seeing the brunt across western cuba. and incredible storm surge across portions of of western florida as well, southwestern regions as much as 7 foot storm surge possible wednesday into thursday. the elevated terrain not as significant as portions of of central cuba, eastern cuba, we don t think this system will want to weaken quite a bit here. possibility it interacts with just a little bit of land. and don t fall in love with the central part of this track. that s something we watch very carefully. and it you notice it flourishes to possibly a category 4, a potentially lethal category 4 system here as it approaches western areas of florida. the last time they were impacted by a major hurricane back in 1921. with all the hurricanes we ve seen across parts of florida in