Hurricane Ian rapidly intensified off Florida's southwest coast Wednesday morning, just shy of the most dangerous Category 5 status.
"This is going to be a nasty nasty day, two days," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said early Wednesday.
Catastrophic storm surges could push as much as 18 feet to 16 feet of water over a nearly 100-mile stretch of coastline, from Bonita Beach north through Fort Myers and Charlotte Harbor to Englewood, the hurricane center warned. Rainfall near the area of landfall could top 18 inches . "The assets we have are unprecedented in the state's history and, unfortunately, they'll need to be deployed," DeSantis said.
Overnight, Hurricane Ian went through a natural cycle when it lost its old eye and formed a new eye. The timing was bad for the Florida coast, because the storm got stronger and larger only hours before landfall. Ian went from 120 mph to 155 mph in just three hours, the second round of rapid intensification in the storm's life cycle.
There were 250,000 people in the Fort Myers/Lee County mandatory evacuation zones, and authorities worried ahead of the storm that only 10% or so would leave. In some areas expected to get hit, more than 30% of the population is over the age of 60, Criswell noted, saying it was a top concern of DeSantis as well when they spoke.
"Unfortunately, all the hotels are full or closed, so it looks as though we're going to be in one of the shelters," Christine Williams said.
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