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Cape Coral getting reports of significant structural damage across the city, emergency officials say
From CNN’s Naomi Thomas
Ryan Lamb, fire chief and emergency management director of Cape Coral, Florida, told CNN the city is getting reports of significant structural damage.
“We’re getting reports of significant structural damage across our city, as well as significant rain,” Lamb said.
Lamb said that they have seen some storm surge as it pushed in the opposite direction to a limited degree and are now bracing as it potentially pushes toward a lot of the population mass and as the flow pushes into the city’s river and canal system.
The significant calls that have been coming in are from people still in their homes who have experienced some type of roof, window or door failure.
American Airlines expands fee waivers to 3 additional states due to Hurricane Ian
From CNN's Pete Muntean
American Airlines is waiving change fees for customers flying to and fromGeorgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina due to the path of Hurricane Ian and its impact on air travel.
The airline had already waived change fees for flights to and from Florida.
American Airlines has canceled about 600 mainline and regional flights on Wednesday, according to spokesperson Curtis Blessing.
Blessing said the storm is impacting the airline's operationin Miami, the carrier’sfourth largest hub.
Florida emergency director tells residents who didn't evacuate to "hunker down"
From CNN’s Jamiel Lynch
Punta Gorda, Florida, is beginning to feel heavy impacts from Hurricane Ian, Charlotte County Emergency Management director Patrick Fuller said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon, around the same time the storm made landfall.
“This is an intense hurricane, we expect that to persist throughout the evening into tomorrow,” Fuller said.
Fuller warned those who have not left that now is not the time to leave, and they need to hunker down. There are 60,000 people in the red zone that are under evacuations, Fuller said, though they are not sure how many got out ahead of the storm.
As of now, they have not received any critical calls, but Fuller warned that this is just the beginning.
“The storm surge, we are still at the very beginning of that. We will see that continue throughout the afternoon into the evening. It’s going to begin to fill up canals, overtop land, and potentially into homes. We are going to see life-threatening storm surge,” he said.
Hurricane Ian has made landfall
From CNN's Judson Jones
Ian has officially made landfall, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Landfall occurred along the southwestern coast of Florida near Cayo Costa around 3:05 p.m. ET with winds near 150 mph, making Ian a high-end Category 4 hurricane.
More than 800,000 customers are without power in Florida
From CNN's Virginia Langmaid
Florida has surpassed 800,000customers without power, according toPowerOutage.us.
The site reports that Lee County, home to Fort Myers and Cape Coral, is still the most affected with more than 293,000customer power outages.
Collier County, which includes Naples and Marco Island, has more than129,000customers without power.
Sarasota County, which includes the cities of Sarasota and Siesta Key, is at more than 112,000customers without power,according to the site.
Hurricane Ian could remain at hurricane strength for the next 24 hours as it cuts across Florida
Hurricane Ian could remain a hurricane for up to the next 24 hours, said Michael Brennan, the acting deputy directorat the National Hurricane Center.
"Right now we'reexpecting it to eventuallyweaken below hurricane strengthsometime overnight tonight orearly Thursday morning," Brennan told CNN Wednesday."It's going to take some time forthat circulation to spin down."
Brennan said generally hurricanes weaken within about 24 hours of making landfall, but warned people not to let their guard down.
"Itwill still be a strong tropicalstorm when it reaches the eastcoast of Florida," he said.
The hurricane center is forecasting Hurricane Ian to move northeastward, crossing the state diagonally before moving offshore somewhere between Cape Canaveral and Jacksonville, Florida.
"That's going to take all the waythrough tomorrow.We have the center of the stormright near the east Floridacoast tomorrow evening," Brennan said.
After that, states on the east coast — like Georgia and South Carolina — will feel the effects of heavy rain, storm surge and high winds as the system moves inland over the weekend.
Hurricane Ian's landfall is minutes away, National Hurricane Center says
The official landfall of Hurricane Ian is imminent, according to Michael Brennan, a forecaster with the National Hurricane Center, and the NHC's 3 p.m. ET update.
The center of the storm is currently 20 miles west of Punta Gorda, Florida, where winds have been gusting over 100 mph for more than an hour.
Hurricane Ian will be a "catastrophic storm" and cause significant damage, Florida power company CEO says
From CNN's Roxanne Garcia
Hurricane Ian will be a "catastrophic storm that is going to do significant damage," Eric Silagy, president and CEO of Florida Power & Light (FPL), said at a news conference.
"Ian is going to be a life-changing event. This is a very powerful, catastrophic storm that is going to do significant damage," Silagy said.
He said that there will be sections of territory that the company will not be able to repair and will have to rebuild, adding that rebuilding can take many days or weeks.
FPL employees are working 24 hours a day, and they have deployed19,000 workers throughout Florida, with 30 states being represented, and there are 37 sites open, he said.
They are deployingtens of thousands of poles, brakers, transformers, and thousands of miles of wirethroughout the territory, as well as flying drones to evaluate damage after the storm.
So far, the company has restored power toover 270,000 customers in the last 12 hours, Silagy said.
Silagy stressed that safetyis their number one concern and encouraged people to stayout of high water, don't drive through high water, stay away from power lines, and follow instructions for portable generators.
Silagy was not yet able to give a timeline on restoring all power.
Here's what the wind from Hurricane Ian looks like in Punta Gorda
The wind lashed at CNN's chief climate correspondent Bill Weir as he pushed back against its force in Punta Gorda, Florida.
The National Weather Service has issued an extreme wind warning for the area.
"When this wind dies, and the sun comes out, the nightmare is justbeginning for a lot of thesefolks," Weir said.
Watch it here:
