Hurricane Ian closes in on Cuba before moving to Florida as Category 4 storm

Florida residents were getting ready, lining up for hours in Tampa to collect bags of sand and clearing store shelves of bottled water.

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

Ian was forecast to intensify rapidly and hit Cuba as a major hurricane 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 on Wednesday.

Authorities in Cuba suspended classes in Pinar del Rio province and planned evacuations Monday as Ian gained strength on approach to Grand Cayman and the Cuban provinces of Isla de Juventud, Pinar del Rio and Artemisa. Cuba also was shutting down its train system ahead of the worst weather.

“Cuba is expecting extreme hurricane force winds, also life threatening storm surge and heavy rainfall,” U.S. National Hurricane Center senior specialist Daniel Brown told The Associated Press early Monday.

At 8 a.m. EDT on Monday, Ian was moving northwest at 22 kph, about 145 kilometres west-southwest of Grand Cayman, sustaining top winds of 120 kph.

In the Cayman Islands, members of the government and opposition were working together “to ensure that our people are made as safe as possible — the supplies, plywood, in some cases sandbags, are distributed so that they can safely weather this storm,” Premier Wayne Panton said in a video posted Sunday. “We must prepare for the worst and absolutely pray and hope for the best.”

“Ian is not expected to spend much time over western Cuba, and additional strengthening is likely over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday,” the center said. “Ian is likely to have an expanding wind field and will be slowing down by that time, which will have the potential to produce significant wind and storm surge impacts along the west coast of Florida.”

A surge of up to 2.4 metres of ocean water and 25 centimetres of rain, with as much as 38 centimetres inches in isolated areas, was predicted for the Tampa Bay area. That’s enough water to inundate low-lying coastal communities.