coast of florida. 155-mile-per-hour wind speeds. that s just two miles short of a category 5 hurricane. it s expected to make landfall about 100 miles south of here in the port charlotte area. rain 12 to 24 inches across much of the florida peninsula, challenge create freshwater flooding. the impact of this will be felt by millions in florida. already 200,000 people without power. that s before the storm even makes landfall. this will uproot people s lives. its a life-threatening storm. this is the sunshine skyway bridge that we have pictures of. you can see the winds kicking up. it will have an enormous impact. let s go to chad myers first at the weather center. the 11:00 a.m. advisory out now. what do you see? still see the 155-mile-per-hour eyewall winds. inside the eye it could be down to 5 or 10 in the middle, but we re working our way onshore. the eye is not onshore. the eyewall is coming onshore. this is what it looks like from space, this is called the visible image
i can take you to this radar. there s cape coral, to naples, there s the eyewall, just finally making landfall. it s not considered landfall under the middle of the eye goes over land. john? the way you described this, millions of people in the path of this storm and will feel the severe impact. as we said, the life-threatening impact. let s go to punta gorda, which could see the worst of it and very soon. our randi kaye has been there all morning long. what is your you seeing now? reporter: we are seeing some pretty heavy winds, actually. i m getting an [ inaudible ] okay. we lost randi kaye in punta gorda. the important thing to know is
up. it will have an enormous impact. let s go to chad myers first at the weather center. the 11:00 a.m. advisory out now. what do you see? still see the 155-mile-per-hour eyewall winds. inside the eye it could be down to 5 or 10 in the middle, but we re working our way onshore. the eye is not onshore. the eyewall is coming onshore. this is what it looks like from space, this is called the visible image. when the sum comes out, you can truly see how large this storm is right now. the eyewall is very big around. that s good news. the smaller the eye, the higher the wind speed could get. it doesn t look like that will happen, because we ll make
that s three times as tall as i am. that s really an unsurvivable conditions. you know, we keep saying this is the most powerful storm to make landfall in recorded history on the west side of florida. you talked about the storm surge. when do you expect the worst, and how long will it linger at that height? well, the water levels will come up, as the eyewall of ian moves onshore, so you re going to have a huge push of the 150-mile-per-hour winds especially on the right side of that circulation. and then there will continue ton an onshore southwesterly and 10r8 flow that will follow that water up into the areas. i would expect elevated water levels through the night into
widespread, significant freshwater flooding. we lose more people in tropical storms and hurricanes, the storm surge and freshwater flooding with water hazards, than we do from the wind. you know, we had been so concerned about the storm surge, we haven t talked about the wind speed. one reason is it accelerates so quickly overnight. when you re talking about wind speeds of 155 miles per hour, how long will people be experiencing that? well, those peak winds are only occurring in the eyewall here. so very, very highest winds only occur. the winds will come down as it goes inland, but evenian is expected to remain a hurricane, and so there are hurricane warnings in effect all the way to places like orlando. now we have issued hurricane warnings, includes places like melbourne, the kennedy space