As Hurricane Ian pounds Cuba and continues on a collision course with Florida, travelers are describing their experiences as they flew northward and away from the storm.
As of 2 p.m. Central on Tuesday, the hurricane is currently moving northward at 10 miles per hour, sitting 255 miles from Sarasota, Florida. The storm, which made landfall in Cuba on Tuesday, is packing sustained winds of 120 miles per hour.
As some mandatory evacuations have been ordered, Chicago-area residents and tourists who were in Florida this week describe the chaos of flying out as the storm looms.
“Gas is out, like a lot of the gas stations are out of gas,” a traveler named Carrie told NBC 5. “The shelter is empty as well and water is scarce.”
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Rich Matula, a Florida resident arriving in Chicago on a planned trip, says that hurricanes are a part of life in the south.
“We wouldn’t have evacuated,” he said. “It’s going to be a rainmaker. The category is going down to Category 2 as it comes ashore. That’s not really bad for us.”
Jesse Gomez came back from a vacation to the barrier islands between Florida and the Gulf of Mexico, and said he had to scramble to get gas and supplies before leaving for home.
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“I did not look forward to seeing what a hurricane was like,” he said.
As of Tuesday afternoon, hurricane warnings stretch out along the west coast of Florida in an area that includes Tampa and St. Petersburg. Storm surge warnings have been issued in areas further to the north and south, with 8-to-12-foot storm surges possible as the hurricane comes on shore.
Parts of the Florida panhandle and the Florida Keys are also under a tropical storm watch, with tropical storm-force winds possible up to 100 miles from the center of the storm.
Rainfall forecasts for the hurricane show as much as 15 or more inches of precipitation falling in a swath stretching across Central Florida. Areas between Jacksonville and Orlando could also see up to a foot of rain as the storm slowly churns its way toward the north.
In addition to evacuations, some theme parks and resorts are also battening down the hatches, including Busch Gardens in Tampa and SeaWorld in Orlando, both of which will be closed on Wednesday and Thursday as the hurricane makes landfall.
Walt Disney World and Universal Studios also began to initiate procedures to close down their parks ahead of landfall.
In Tampa, the Buccaneers are scheduled to play the Kansas City Chiefs on NBC’s Sunday Night Football, but the status of the game remains in question as the league evaluates its options.
Currently, the Buccaneers have decamped to Miami to ride out the storm, bringing all players, coaches and front office personnel along with them.
President Joe Biden has pledged full federal support for Floridians as the storm arrives, meeting with FEMA officials at the White House on Tuesday.
