Hurricane Ian

2022 - 9 - 28

Post cover — Image courtesy of "The Guardian"

Hurricane Ian: Florida braces for powerful storm amid evacuation ... (The Guardian)

Warnings that catastrophic storm surges could cause flooding in Tampa region as hurricane makes landfall in Cuba.

[vulnerable to flooding](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/health/environment/tampa-bay-climate-change/) from a storm surge as the bay is shallow. [Grocery stores](https://www.tampabay.com/hurricane/2022/09/27/tampa-bay-preps-shortages-ahead-hurricane-ian/) were selling out of bottled water. [at capacity](https://www.tampabay.com/hurricane/2022/09/27/tuesday-live-updates-tampa-bay-final-hours-prep-hurricane-ian-nears/) in one Tampa county. In that case, the area could see a 10-ft storm surge, bringing major flooding to the area, according to the As seen throughout Florida, despite the risks posed by rising sea levels and storms made more powerful by climate change, luxury condominiums have “This is a really, really big hurricane at this point.” In 2015, a firm in Boston that analyzes catastrophe models named Tampa as the city [most prone](https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2015/09/15/381499.htm) to storm surge flooding. [ press conference](https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/hurricane/2022/09/27/hurricane-ian-path-evacuations-storm-surge-winds-news-florida-information/8122901001/). Distributions for sandbags, which are used to alleviate flooding damage, were Last year, Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana as a category 4 hurricane and cost an “This is a life-threatening situation. [estimated](https://www.nola.com/news/hurricane/article_716be8ee-83cf-11ec-a605-a7749397ceec.html#:~:text=Ida%2C%202021%2C%20%2475%20billion&text=hit%20the%20state.-,Its%20wind%20and%20storm%20surge%20caused%20catastrophic%20damage%20along%20the,southeast%20Louisiana%20and%20south%20Mississippi.) $75bn in damages.

Predicting Hurricane Ian's track has been difficult. An expert tells us ... (NPR)

The National Weather Service's Joel Cline wants residents to know when danger is coming. But he adds, "If people think of a hurricane as a dot and a city as ...

You take the heat from the tropics and you move it toward the mid-latitudes. That's physics: You've got a lot of heat at the equator and you don't have a lot of heat at the poles. So you have higher winds over a larger area in the hurricane and maybe not as high in the center. The way the planet handles that is, it takes heat and transports it. It has to go off to the northeast at some point in time. In the tropics, it goes east to west. And little differences will matter to people on the ground, where they live. Over the weekend, Ian's predicted path shifted briefly to Tampa, then far north to the Tallahassee area in the Panhandle — and then it moved south again. On Monday, for instance, it stressed that "there is still significant uncertainty in the track of Ian, especially in the 3-5 day time frame." While a map tends to highlight the eye of the storm, Ian is spinning hurricane-force winds up to 35 miles out from its center, with tropical-storm-force winds four times as far. "There's a reason we have this cone of uncertainty," Joel Cline, the tropical program coordinator for the National Weather Service, told NPR. First off, there are very few "easy" hurricanes to forecast and they're all different.

3 reasons why Hurricane Ian could cause major flooding in Florida (PBS NewsHour)

Much of the state is at risk of heavy rainfall, and the coast could see devastating storm surge, particularly around Tampa Bay.

Residents were encouraged to [check their evacuation zones](https://www.floridadisaster.org/knowyourzone/) and [identify the closest shelters](https://www.floridadisaster.org/planprepare/shelters/) before the storm arrives. [The Conversation](https://theconversation.com) under a Creative Commons license. Residents across Florida need to prepare for the risk of heavy rain, flash flooding, storm surge, isolated tornadoes and strong winds. If the storm is large enough, it could even generate storm surge on the eastern side of the Florida Peninsula, like Irma did along portions of northeast Florida. [see some storm surge and coastal flooding](https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/102341.shtml?peakSurge#contents), especially as the storm nears land. The part of the storm east of the center of circulation generally has more cloud cover and more rain. The Tampa area forecast as of Tuesday, was for up to 10 feet of storm surge that could be pushed into Tampa Bay. But as Florida saw with Andrew, wind damage can be catastrophic in these smaller systems. Up to 3 feet of storm surge was expected for the Florida Keys and South Florida, but these amounts could also be higher, especially as Ian strengthens. Several areas, including around Tampa Bay, were under [evacuation orders](https://www.tampabay.com/hurricane/2022/09/26/hillsborough-orders-300000-evacuate/). Since land surrounds the Gulf of Mexico, there is nowhere for this water to go but inland. But the scale doesn’t take water risk into account, and flooding and storm surge are both major risks from Ian.

Hurricane Ian smashes into Cuba, Florida evacuating (Newstalk ZB)

Hurricane Ian tore into western Cuba as a major hurricane, with nothing to stop it from intensifying into a catastrophic Category 4 storm before it crashes.

Photo / Rob O'Neal, The Key West Citizen via AP President Joe Biden also declared an emergency, authorising the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief and provide assistance to protect lives and property. In Florida's northeastern corner, the US Navy said it planned to move ships and aircraft from its base outside Jacksonville. Playing it safe, Nasa was rolling its moon rocket from the launch pad to its Kennedy Space Center hangar, adding weeks of delay to the test flight. As the storm's centre moved into the Gulf, scenes of destruction emerged in Cuba's world-famous tobacco belt. The airports in Tampa and St. Fort Myers is in the hurricane zone, and Tampa and St Petersburg could get their first direct hit by a major hurricane since 1921. "People on the barrier islands who decide not to go, they do so at their own peril," Roger Desjarlais, county manager of Lee County, where Fort Myers is, said early Tuesday. The US National Hurricane Center said "significant wind and storm surge impacts" occurred Tuesday morning in western Cuba. With tropical storm-force winds extending 185km from Ian's centre, damage was expected across a wide area of Florida, regardless of where Ian makes landfall. Gil Gonzalez boarded his windows with plywood Tuesday and had sandbags ready to protect his Tampa home from flooding. Tropical storm-force winds were expected across the southern peninsula late Tuesday, reaching hurricane force Wednesday morning.

Hurricane Ian strikes Cuba, Florida braces for damage (1 News)

Damaging winds and flooding are expected across the entire state as Ian moves north.

The airports in Tampa and Saint Petersburg announced they'll close Tuesday afternoon (local time). In Florida's northeastern corner, the US Navy said it planned to move ships and aircraft from its base outside Jacksonville. As the storm's centre moved into the Gulf, scenes of destruction emerged in Cuba's world-famous tobacco belt. "People on the barrier islands who decide not to go, they do so at their own peril," Roger Desjarlais, county manager of Lee County, where Fort Myers is, said early Tuesday (local time). Fort Myers is in the hurricane zone, and Tampa and Saint Petersburg could get their first direct hit by a major hurricane since 1921. The US National Hurricane Center said "significant wind and storm surge impacts" occurred.

Hurricane Ian: Florida fears catastrophic flooding as storm nears (BBC News)

Florida's vulnerable Tampa Bay area could be struck directly for the first time in a century.

In the airport, one man said he had not faced the prospect of a storm like this in his 43 years of living in the area. On one flight to Tampa on Tuesday, returning residents discussed the approaching storm. "This is not a drill," Mayor Castor said. If hit directly, the region may be "unrecognisable" in the next couple of days, Mr Salna told the BBC. This is, in its own way, a human nature trainwreck," said Richard Olson, director of the extreme events institute at Florida International University (FIU). Tampa Bay Mayor Jane Castor said on Tuesday that the city would also be implementing a curfew for remaining residents.