Dozens of counties in different areas of Florida have set up spaces for shelters, many in schools, in anticipation of Hurricane Ian passing through the state this Wednesday.
From Charlotte, Lake, Orange , Osceola, Marion to St. Johns, Putnam, Duval, Columbia and Alahuacha, residents have chosen to leave their homes and seek a safe place to shelter from the hurricane that this morning strengthened to category 4 with winds of 155 miles per hour.
Authorities have circulated evacuation orders for various areas of the state, forcing residents to leave their homes at safer areas.
Since before the authorities issued the eviction orders in areas closer to the coast, hundreds of people had abandoned their residences fearful of the impact that the system could have.
“I prefer to be safe than sorry, especially with the path of the hurricane constantly changing,” Steve McClure told NBC on Tuesday.
“First it came straight at us a day ago. Now it’s moving a little bit to the east,” he noted.
McClure, of 54 years, has been residing in Tampa for three years. When Hurricane Elena hit the Gulf Coast in 1985 he lived in Clearwater, so he knows the danger of these atmospheric events.
Another person who was carrying out the paperwork to leave his home in Tampa yesterday was Alexander Burks. Burks, who lives not far from downtown Tampa near the Hillsborough River, lives in a mandatory evacuation zone.
“Storm surge is our biggest concern, but so are high winds and rain ”, he declared. Burks, of 50, boarded up the windows of his home and put up a sand wall to protect the property.
The resident who has battled several cyclones since 2005 said he would be moving to a second house he owns not far from the other.
In his 7 am bulletin (11.11 GMT) ), the The National Hurricane Center (NHC) of the United States reported that the hurricane is about 65 miles (65 km) south-southwest of Punta Gorda, in southwestern Florida.
The largest impact zone has been located further north, in Tampa Bay.
The dangerous storm surge that Ian will produce on his passage can raise sea levels by as much as 16 feet (4.8 meters) in some portion of Florida’s west coast.
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