Weather

Major Hurricane Ian made landfall near Cayo Costa shortly after 3 PM Wednesday and more than twelve hours later, it is still bringing flash flooding to central Florida before an eventual exit along the east coast.

Heather Halak, the owner of Third House Books in Gainesville, was among the many Florida business owners preparing for Hurricane Ian this week.

One of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit the United States barreled across the Florida peninsula overnight Wednesday, threatening catastrophic flooding inland, the National Hurricane Center warned.

Livestock owners preparing for Hurricane Ian have three major concerns: identification, sheltering and power. Livestock can be identified by using ear tags or by spraying numbers onto the cattle using a can of nontoxic spray. Because most barns are not built to withstand hurricane winds, many area farms will leave their cows to weather the storm in open fields. Another concern is keeping power on so well water can be pumped for the livestock to drink.

On Wednesday, Governor Ron DeSantis detailed Florida’s emergency response plan for Hurricane Ian. Over 10,000 first responders are on standby. Some 42,000 linemen are also on standby to restore power to the 1.7 million people who have currently lost power. 911 call centers are down in Lee, Hendry and Glade counties and those calls are being rerouted to nearby counties. DeSantis urges people to stay safe indoors even if it is clear because many hurricane deaths happen after the storm, due to hurricane hazards.

Earlier in the day, Gov. Ron DeSantis had called an initial 200,000 outages a "drop in the bucket" compared to total number of Floridians who will be affected by power outages by the time the storm passes.

Ian is forecast to bring life-threatening storm surge, flooding rains, strong winds, and even the risk of tornadoes as it makes landfall along the Gulf Coast Wednesday.