good morning, monday september 26th, 9:00 a.m. in london, 4:00 a.m. on the u.s. east coast. where the state of florida is under a state of emergency. officials are warning residents to prepare for the worst as tropical storm ian gained strength in the caribbean and barrels towards the state. the storm is pushing towards western cuba right now but a tropical storm watch is in place for the florida keys. the national hurricane center says ian is close to hurricane strength and could become a major hurricane on tuesday. florida s governor and officials are urging people to get prepared now. expect heavy rains, strong winds, flash flooding, storm surge and even isolated tornadoes. make preparations now. i know a lot of people have been doing it throughout the state of florida and the things that you should be prepared with, food, water, batteries, medicine, fuel. anticipate particularly the closer you are to where the eye of the storm makes landfall, anticipate power outages. t
ready. have supplies for five, seven days. having everything you need, medicine, food, water. you have to take it serious. we have activated the florida national guard. they are activating 2,500 guards men at the moment. and if there is a need for more, we could do more. we have meteorologist standing by in the weather center. we saw that 5:00 a.m. update, now officially a hurricane. what is the latest on ian s track across the caribbean toward florida here. the system has everything it takes to really amplify over the next couple days and strengthen possibly to a category 4. that s the concern. all the environmental concerns absolutely conducive for rapid development of the storm system. we take a look at this because category 1 right now about 100 miles south of the cayman islands, about 300 islands south of the tip of cuba. the governments of these countries have taken this seriously. hurricane warnings have been prompted in advance of this feature. northwest caribbe