life-threatening storm surge. we just learned the updated storm surge projections for those areas is now staggers. it is now 12 to 18 feet. that is the warning. already more than 16 on,000 customers are without power across the state of florida. more than 2.5 million people are under an erag ways order or warning. governor desantis said residents in the cross hairs need to shelter in place, because it is too late to leave. if you are in any of those counties, it s no longer possible to safely evacuate. it s time to hunker down and prepare for this storm. this is a powerful storm that should be treated like you would treat if a tornado was approaching your home. we are covering all angles up and down the western coast of florida. let s begin with john berman. he s in tampa. what can you tell us? reporter: good morning poppy and jim. this storm is bringing three interrelated threats. the winds, an historic storm, one of the most powerful projected, particularly about in
life-threatening storm surge. we just learned the updated storm surge projections for those areas is now staggers. it is now 12 to 18 feet. that is the warning. already more than 16 on,000 customers are without power across the state of florida. more than 2.5 million people are under an erag ways order or warning. governor desantis said residents in the cross hairs need to shelter in place, because it is too late to leave. if you are in any of those counties, it s no longer possible to safely evacuate. it s time to hunker down and prepare for this storm. this is a powerful storm that should be treated like you would treat if a tornado was approaching your home. we are covering all angles up and down the western coast of florida. let s begin with john berman.
hurricane ian is a big one, extremely dangerous, sustained winds of 155 miles per hour. that is just two miles per hour short of category 5. it is expected to make landfall just a few hours from now, bringing catastrophic wind damage, flooding and surge. well, let s get back to john berman. he joins us in tampa. john, what do you see? reporter: then there s the rain beyond what you were talking about, 12 to 24 feet. the impact of this storm will be felt throughout the entire state as it bears down the next hour or two on the southwest coast. let s check in across to derek brayden ton. what do you see? on the verge of a historic
seeing cancellations as far north as here at reagan. look at the latest cancellations numbers. we just crossed the 2,000 cancellation mark. the top airports orlando which closed just a few minutes ago. miami international, which is still open, but many flights to the caribbean are impacted. tampa international which closed at about 5:00 p.m. last night. the last flight out was bound for atlanta. right now the airport is preparing for things like flooding and power outages. a arm of volunteers will ride out the storm. they want to make the airport open again once the storm ultimately does pass. we have a team of storm riders, made up about 120 employees that will ride out the storm. once the storm has passed, our team will conduct a damage
they re going to be, but they are picking up. you can see the storm surge there on the jetty, the waves slaps over the jetty there, picking up on tampa bay, as it moves in here. you know, not long ago that airport was pretty much not visibility to us from this vantage point. also, we can tell you a concern is storm surge and flooding right in the downtown st. peters burk area t the mayor told me the shore acres area and the water diplomat front, they re worried about it. they think there might be flooding pretty soon, this afternoon. ther they are also worried about people who live on canals, when the high tide coincides with storm surge, those people will be vulnerable. they already have power outages, due to uprighted trees. essentially don t do what these folks are don t.