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
now hitting south florida and the storm s eye is off of cuba s coast moving into the warm waters which means the storm could grow and get for powerful. it hit werp cuba hard overnight with winds and heavy rain just at-battering the island. the forecast models have it projected to make landfall in tampa bay as a major hurricane. storm surge is one of the biggest threats from the storm. and as much as two feet of rain could be falling in some parts of florida from this. officials there saying right now they are urging people into the storm s path to make the final presentations and of course to get out before it is too late. let s start with cnn s meteorologist chad myers tracking this for us. what is the latest. it does look like the 11:00 advisory has brought this storm a little bit farther to the south. we re still waiting for what we call the discussion. all of the words that they use to describe what their reason was, what the meaning is, where this is going from here. s
roger stone openly calling for insurrection violence. one democratic congressman says what happened in two pennsylvania districts will tell us everything about which party controls the house next year. we begin the hoyer with hurricane ian and florida now bracing for its arrival. the cat 3 storm on a direct path for the sunshine state. already packing maximum sustained winds of 115 miles per hour. ian expected to strengthen over the next 24 hours. local officials making urgent pleas for people to evacuate. the storm did make landfall this morning in cuba. heavy rains and winds hammering the area. forecasted storm surges up to 8 feet. the current track puts ian s center ten miles from st. pete. if that holds true, it will be the closest path to tampa for a major hurricane since 1950. carlos suarez live on the ground outside tampa. first let s get to the weather center and cnn s chad myers. the 11:00 advisory came in and the american model came in in the past ten minutes.
i told each one of them, my conversation separately, whatever they need. sincerely, whatever they need, contact me directly. joining me now jamie rome, acting director of the national hurricane center. good to have you with us this hour. we saw in the most recent update, the 2:00 p.m. update that the storm was rapidly intensifying. the major concern at this hour seems to be the storm surge and also just how long this storm could sit. what are the areas that you re most focused on at this hour? i think water is going to be the big issue with this storm, both the incredibly heavy rainfall. you can see it starting to sweep over the southern portions of the florida peninsula. and the storm surge near to the east of where the center makes landfall, and those two when they combine together, it creates a lot of flooding issues. speaking the the mayor of tampa in the last hour, she was pointing to the separate saturation that they re already seeing on the ground there that they
and hurricane irma, which veered at the last second. businesses are putting plywood up on windows. this is an ice cream shot trying to inject some levity, no ice cream for ian. sandbags are on the ground to prevent flooding. that s small potatoes in terms of mandatory evacuations. pinellas county and hillsborough county have about 2.5 million people collectively. the whole tampa bay area is 3.2. 75%, 08% of the people are in two counties that have mandatory evacuations. they re looking to move a million-plus people. that process started last night, 2:00 for hillsborough, 6:00 for pinellas. but you ll see the biggest chunks of people fry trying to get out today. the topography of this area, there are bays and inlets, barrier reefs, the bay on one side, the gulf on the other. the water has nowhere to go. storm surge right now certainly the biggest concern as the projections are between 5 and ten feet. for historical context, the last time a major hurricane struck tampa direct