“The safest way through bad weather is together,” Wise said, adding that officials have been identifying which shelters can care for people with special needs and those who require around-the-clock electricity for medical needs. Hillsborough leaders - including local mayors, law enforcement and emergency management staff - gathered Sunday afternoon to echo a message of preparation.Ĭounty administrator Bonnie Wise said Hillsborough can open several dozen shelters if needed, and that staff have been out cleaning ditches to improve drainage and water flow. “Efforts to protect life and property should be rushed to completion,” it added. “Regardless of Ian’s exact track and intensity, there is a risk of dangerous storm surge, hurricane-force winds, and heavy rainfall along the west coast of Florida and the Florida Panhandle by the middle of next week,” the hurricane center advised Sunday morning. The National Hurricane Center warned the long-term forecast remains largely unpredictable as the storm enters the Gulf of Mexico. The president postponed a trip scheduled Tuesday to Orlando. President Joe Biden also declared an emergency for the state, authorizing the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts.
He authorized emergency 30-day refills of prescriptions and activated 2,500 Florida National Guardsmen. “The impacts will be broad throughout the state of Florida.” “Just don’t think if you’re not in that eye, that somehow you don’t have to make preparations,” he said, warning of possible fuel disruptions, power failures and evacuation orders.
Ron DeSantis stressed the continued precariousness of the storm’s path during a Sunday news conference. Pinellas schools announced they will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday.Ī day after declaring a state of emergency for all of Florida’s 67 counties, Gov.
Pinellas County urged residents to finish their sheltering plans soon, whether they be in a nonevacuation zone home, in a hotel or with a friend or family member. Its landfall location, strength and exact timing remained uncertain. Tampa Bay was newly situated in the National Hurricane Center’s 3-day cone, however, with the storm predicted to near the region by Wednesday night. Much of the Florida panhandle and state’s peninsula, including the Tampa Bay area, remained in the hurricane’s possible path as of forecasters’ 11 p.m. The center of Ian is expected to pass Jamaica, then move near or past the Cayman Islands early Monday morning. Hours before the tornado hit, the weather service had warned of “isolated damaging thunderstorm winds and marginally severe hail” from eastern North Carolina to southeast Virginia with a slight risk of severe thunderstorms.“Heavy rainfall may affect north Florida, the Florida Panhandle and portions of the southeast on Thursday, Friday and Saturday,” the center said in its 11 p.m. “Not many people there actually saw the debris swirling around the tornado, and it quickly became wrapped in rain, and we lost a visual in maybe 60 seconds from when I first saw it,” Cunningham told CNN. City workers were also expected to begin cleanup at 8 a.m., the city said.īilly Cunningham heard a siren while eating dinner at a Virginia Beach restaurant, then got video of the tornado. The city manager declared a local state of emergency in the wake of the storm, officials said Sunday, announcing the Great Neck Recreation Center would be open to affected residents and their pets. Dey Elementary School are closed Monday due to road closures and damage from the storm, the school district said. The Enhanced Fujita scale measures how strong tornadoes can getĬox High School, Great Neck Middle School and John B.
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