Two people have died and the power supply has been severed to Cuba’s entire population of 11 million after Hurricane Ian hammered one of the island’s main power plants.
The hurricane is now gathering strength and bearing down on Florida as the state races to prepare for a “life-threatening” storm expected to pass over the Florida Keys.
More than 2.5 million Floridians have been placed under evacuation orders or warnings with the sprawling storm on track to make landfall as a Category 3 or Category 4 hurricane later today.
Governor Ron DeSantis urged Floridians to heed warnings to evacuate to higher ground due to the potential for “catastrophic flooding and life-threatening storm surge”.
He said 8,000 people were without power in southeastern Florida and that 30,000 state personnel were on alert to help respond to outages.
“This is a lot of nasty weather that we’re in store for over the next few days,” he said.
The most recent models have the hurricane projected to make landfall south of Tampa Bay, where storm surges could reach up to 12 ft (3.7 metres). Up to 24 inches (61cm) of rain is expected in some areas and wind speeds of 130 miles per hour (209km/h).
