300,000 People In Florida Ordered To Evacuate As Hurricane Ian Approaches

300,000 People In Florida Ordered To Evacuate As Hurricane Ian Approaches

Florida officials issued a mandatory evacuation order to residents of Tampa in anticipation of Hurricane Ian, and leaders in other parts of the state are warning residents that similar orders could come within the next day as they brace for a storm that forecasters fear will be potent.

Ian moved near the Cayman Islands and closer to western Cuba early on Monday on a track to hit Florida as a major hurricane this week.

Hillsborough county, which covers a part of Tampa, issued a mandatory evacuation order to more than 300,000 people on Monday morning. The county also cancelled school on Tuesday.

 

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“Do not wait. Time is of the essence. Act now,” Bonnie Wise, county administrator, told residents.

If Ian hits Tampa directly it would be the first hurricane to do so in a century, meteorologists calculate.

Officials in Sarasota county – to the south of Tampa – and Pinellas county, which covers St Petersburg, have warned residents that evacuation orders will probably come on Tuesday.

The storm was forecast to intensify rapidly and hit Cuba as a major hurricane – category 3 or above – late Monday, and then become an even stronger category 4 hurricane over warm Gulf of Mexico waters before striking the west central coast of Florida as soon as Wednesday.