Evacuations spread to at least one county on Florida's East Coast.Disney, other theme parks are shutting down.Rocket launches, sporting events postponed.President Joe Biden approved a federal emergency declaration for Florida.Ian made landfall in Cuba as Category 3 hurricane.
The outer bands of Hurricane Ian brought tornadoes to South Florida Tuesday night, storm surge and high winds were battering the Florida Keys, theme parks and airports closed and residents hunkered down to wait for the storm's arrival.
Ian is expected to bring life-threatening storm surge, flooding and damaging winds, with impacts over a wide area of the state after causing major damage in Cuba. See the full forecast .
Here's a look at the news as it unfolded Tuesday.
High winds and heavy rains from Ian caused Cuba's power grid to completely collapse, leaving 11 million . Hurricane Ian struck the island with heavy rain and winds up to 125 mph. It's not clear how long it might take to restore power.
More of our ongoing hurricane coverage: Storm Tracker-- 12 Things You May Not Know About Your Hurricane Forecast-- Four Things You Need To Know About Spaghetti Models-- Hurricane Ian Forecast FAQ-- 7 Things Florida Newcomers Should Know About Hurricane Season-- Hurricane Ian Preparations In Photos
Several college football games and other sporting events are being by Hurricane Ian, according to ESPN. They include: University of Florida vs. Eastern Washington, moved to Sunday; Central Florida against Southern Methodist moved to Sunday; South Florida vs. East Carolina moved from Tampa to Boca Raton on Saturday; The NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning postponed two preseason games.
In addition, the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers moved operations to Miami and the NBA's Orlando Magic canceled tomorrow's practice.
WTSP-TV evacuated their primary studio in St. Petersburg and moved to another site nearby.
"We will be with you through the storm no matter what to keep you informed, prepared and connected!" the station . "Stay safe and evacuate if you are ordered to do so."
Multiple tornadoes have been reported in the outer bands of the storm. One, in Broward County, damaged planes at North Perry Airport in Pembroke Pines. Click for more details.
Planes were blown over by a tornado at Broward County's North Perry Airport on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022.
(Tom Pendas via Facebook)
Mandatory evacuations are currently in 11 different counties. They are: Charlotte, Citrus, Collier, Hernando, Hillsborough, Lee, Levy, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas and Sarasota. The latest county added to the list, St. Johns, will issue an order tomorrow morning. Orders vary by county, but in general apply to coastal and low-lying areas as well as buildings vulnerable to damage such as mobile homes.
Two rocket launches planned for the coming days at NASA's Kennedy Space Center have been over weather concerns, Florida Today reported. NASA and SpaceX are now targeting no earlier than Tuesday for the launch of the Crew-5 mission carrying four astronauts to the International Space Station. A United Launch Alliance Atlas V launch was also postponed.
The delays come after NASA's Artemis 1 moon rocket was into the Vehicle Assembly Building ahead of Hurricane Ian, the latest delay for the program.
Hurricane preparations are underway at Naval Station Mayport. Ships and aircraft began today. The base is located in Duval County on the east side of Jacksonville where the St. John's River meets the Atlantic Ocean.
Meanwhile, in Tampa, MacDill Air Force Base moved into , which means damaging winds are expected within 12 hours.
Hurricane Hunters provide critical information on storms like Ian. Tuesday morning, NOAA's WP-3D Orion named Kermit recorded their bump ride out of the storm's center. Click to watch.
Mandatory go into effect at 6 a.m. tomorrow in parts of St. Johns County, on Florida's Atlantic Coast south of Jacksonville. The evacuation order applies to Zone A, B and parts of F and includes the entire cities of St. Augustine and St. Augustine Beach.
The reason for issuing evacuations in this area due mostly to threats of storm surge, but there will also be heavy rainfall.
"As counter-clockwise-spinning Ian moves across central Florida, St Johns County will be on the north side of the storm, meaning the wind will be coming onshore from the east, causing storm surge flooding," weather.com meteorologist said. "It's a slow moving storm, so this will be a prolonged storm surge event that will last a couple tide cycles."
The worst will be on Thursday into Thursday night.
will close all its Orlando theme parks on Wednesday and Thursday. That includes Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The company had previously announced that some activities would be scaled back.
Other theme parks closing include and in Orlando, and in Tampa.
Parks have varying weather cancellation policies, so it's best to check with individual attractions for information on refunds or rescheduling.
"I've a federal emergency declaration and have instructed (FEMA) Administrator Criswell to ensure that all available federal support is surged to Florida to prepare and respond to the hurricane," Biden said in a tweet. "I encourage Florida families to heed evacuation orders."
More than 280 Publix stores are ahead of Hurricane Ian. The closures stretch along the coast from Weeki Wachee south to Marco Island, including Tampa, Clearwater and St. Petersburg, and inland to some areas west and south of Orlando. Closures and planned reopening times vary. Publix is the largest supermarket chain in Florida.
A gasoline pump is shut down and wrapped in plastic in St. Pete Beach, Florida, ahead of Hurricane Ian on Sept. 27, 2022.
(BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images)
Residents in are under an evacuation order, and all others in the county are encouraged to leave as well, the Citrus County Sheriff's Office posted on social media. Shelters will open at 6 p.m.
In an interview this afternoon with The Weather Channel, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis emphasized the dangers of the storm and the importance of being prepared.
“If you’re in a low-lying area that is prone to storm surge or flooding, you need to get to higher ground and get to a safe place,” DeSantis said.
“The point I’m making is at the end of the day you don’t get a mulligan on this so it’s better to take the precaution and then not end up having had a significant impact than the reverse.”
Mandatory evacuations in Sarasota County, to the south of Tampa Bay, now include, in addition to Zone A and all mobile homes. Click to see our running list of evacuations, and be sure to follow local officials on social media and via text alert for the most up-to-date information for your area.
Police in Bradenton, on the south side of Tampa Bay, are going through certain neighborhoods asking residents to leave. A posted to Facebook shows a police cruiser playing a message over a loud speaker.
"A mandatory evacuation has been ordered. Please leave this area," the message says.
Orlando International Airport announced via a message on the homepage of their website that airport operations will cease beginning Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. ET. Those with booked flights were instructed to contact their airline company directly.
The announced that they will be issuing hourly updates on the status of Hurricane Ian. The center says hourly updates will continue as long as the eye of the storm is easily trackable by land-based radar. Typically, public advisories for Atlantic tropical cyclones are issued every six hours.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says about 2.5 million Floridians are under some type of evacuation order.
“When you’re talking about storm surge like this — when you’re talking about historic flooding — that water is a very very difficult adversary,” he said. “You do not want to put yourself in harm's way unnecessarily. If you're ordered to evacuate, that's a decision based on what we’re seeing with this storm and what your local officials are seeing with this storm.”
The National Weather Service urged residents in southwest and west-central Florida to 'rush all preparations to completion today.' The area could see incredibly strong winds by Wednesday morning.
Lee County officials issued a mandatory evacuation order for all of Evacuation Zones A and B. Earlier this morning, the county issued an order that only covered Zone A and part of Zone B. The expansion of the order to include all of Zone B affects additional residents in the Cape Coral and Fort Myers communities.
Video showed the Cape Coral Fire Department driving through neighborhoods announcing evacuation orders over a loudspeaker.
Charlotte County officials announced that the mandatory evacuation order in place was expanded to include Evacuation Zone B in addition to Evacuation Zone A. The evacuation order also applies to residents of mobile homes, regardless of evacuation zone.
In a plea to affected residents, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister urged people to follow the orders of county officials in order to avoid 'senseless' loss of life.
“I don’t want any of you to have to go to funerals because you didn’t want to feel uncomfortable and have to go stay at a friend’s house or stay at a shelter," he said. “The time to act is now.”
Hillsborough County residents in Evacuation Zones A or B are under mandatory evacuation orders.
Hillsborough county officials announced that the previously voluntary evacuation order for Evacuation Zone B was upgraded to a mandatory evacuation.
“Due to the growing intensity and size of the major hurricane Ian, and the increasing likelihood that Hillsborough county will be significantly impacted, we are amending the voluntary evacuation for Zone B to mandatory evacuation," a county administrator Bonnie Wise said.
The new evacuation begins at noon today and affects about 90,000 additional residents.
In a , Florida Governor Ron DeSantis addressed the remaining uncertainty about where Hurricane Ian will make landfall in Florida.
"There's still uncertainty with where that exact landfall will be, but just understand, the impacts are going to be far, far broader than just where the eye of the storm happens to make landfall," he said.
The governor added that some areas will see catastrophic flooding and life-threatening storm surge.
Manatee County officials announced that mandatory evacuations orders expanded to include Evacuation Zone B in addition to Zone A. As of yesterday, only Zone A was under a mandatory evacuation order. Evacuation orders for Zone C remain 'recommended' but not mandatory.
Western Cuba was hit by intense wind as Hurricane Ian made landfall as a Category 3 storm. Ian produced sustained winds of 125 MPH. According to the National Hurricane Center, as the storm moved over western Cuba, it caused 'significant wind and storm surge impacts.'
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, .
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