Soon to be in the teeth of a monster storm, anxious Tampa residents were making final preparations Tuesday ahead of potentially catastrophic Hurricane Ian, which is forecast to slam Florida’s west coast with a ferocity unseen here in decades.
September 27, 2022
Soon to be in the teeth of a monster storm, anxious Tampa residents were making final preparations Tuesday ahead of potentially catastrophic Hurricane Ian, which is forecast to slam Florida’s west coast with a ferocity unseen here in decades.
Authorities have issued evacuation orders for more than two million Floridians, including those in the most vulnerable areas around the Tampa Bay, where inlets, canals and waterways are susceptible to the mass flooding and life-threatening storm surges expected when Mother Nature unleashes its fury on Florida beginning Tuesday night.
City employees were filling and handing out free sandbags at various locations, where long lines of cars could be seen as residents scrambled for ways to protect their property.
Amanda Harrison, 66, told AFP she waited two hours at a distribution point to get « the maximum number of bags » to line her home ahead of Ian’s wrath. « And my fears are that they’re not going to do any good. »
A 100-mile (160-kilometer) stretch from Ft Myers north to Tampa is under the most serious threat, as Ian battered Cuba Tuesday as a Category 3 major hurricane and began building in intensity over the warm Gulf of Mexico waters on its way north.
