MIAMI — A large swath of Florida’s Gulf Coast is under hurricane and storm surge watches Monday from Hurricane Ian, which whipped up overnight and is expected to turn into major storm as it heads toward a potential first landfall in western Cuba.
The latest forecast showed Hurricane Ian crossing north of Tampa Bay as a powerful Category 3 storm and making landfall in the big bend as a Category 1 or 2 storm. But regardless of any future small shifts in the track, which forecasters warned could continue for the next few days, much of Florida’s Gulf Coast, from Naples northward, faces a major risk of storm surge.
The Tampa Bay metro area, home to some 3 million people, is particularly vulnerable to coastal flooding from hurricanes,
