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.
so i think early wednesday afternoon, between 1 pm and maybe five or 6 pm, across portions is south of tampa bay now. areas of port charlotte, putin gorda, maybe areas around siesta key, clearwater beach, these are areas we are watching for a major hurricane to make landfall, and then continue on a tropical storm into the central portion of florida, including areas around orlando, and then reemerge around the eastern portion of florida. you ll notice model guidance, a lot better agreement on why the system is going to end up. a few outliers still want to take it towards tampa. the vast majority of models want to take it south of tampa. within 24 hours, typically the average spread of air is say about 35 to 40 miles. tampa sits about 175 miles to the north. so i do not think it will end up back in the tampa zone. but it is certainly lolooking more likely that will take a a southern trajectory,y, which means it makes landfdfall soone, anand makes landfall as a stroronger system. and noti