MIAMI — Ian strengthened early Wednesday into an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane that is close to Cat 5 strength. The hurricane is forecast to whip Florida with catastrophic winds, flooding rain and life-threatening storm surge as it gets closer to a west coast landfall Wednesday afternoon.
The storm surge predictions soared overnight to 12 to 16 feet for Englewood to Bonita Bay, a forecast so high a new color was added to the National Hurricane Center’s peak storm surge prediction map.
Wednesday morning, Ian’s outer bands were already battering Southwest Florida. South Florida saw tornadoes overnight that flipped small airplanes and took down big trees, and Key West recorded one of its highest ever storm surge levels overnight.
