It’s rarely a good thing when top personalities from The Weather Channel and other news networks check into area hotels — but that was the reality Tuesday and Wednesday as Hurricane Ian pressed closer to landfall in the region.
The Category 3 hurricane was tracking to strike somewhere between Englewood and Venice, according to midday Tuesday forecasts.
The peak winds are 95-115 mph with gusts up to 145, according to the National Weather Service.
“Potential impacts: Devastating to catastrophic,” it stated in its forecast.
Tropical storm and then hurricane-force winds were predicted to be coming across the coastline starting early Wednesday.
The hurricane-force winds would last from Wednesday morning until Thursday morning; the tropical storm-force winds would affect the area from early Wednesday through early Friday morning.
Residents in two of the five evacuation zones in Charlotte and Sarasota counties were urged to evacuate Tuesday. In North Port, authorities were going house-to-house in mobile home parks; in Venice, police were driving through areas in the danger zone with a loudspeaker urging evacuation.
Sarasota County evacuation centers were opened and pet friendly, its officials said.
Venice police drove through the Bay Indies mobile home park Tuesday, using loudspeakers to encourage residents to evacuate.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday, during a news conference in Sarasota, that those warnings needed to be heeded.
“You’re not going to get a mulligan on this,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis said people needed to remember what happened with Hurricane Charley in 2004, which swerved from its forecasted course and struck Charlotte County.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, left, speaks as he stands with Kevin Guthrie, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, during a Monday news conference in Largo.
Florida Department of Transportation Secretary Jared Perdue said bridges in the affected area may remained closed until they can be inspected after the storms. The same, he said, could be taking place with powerlines.
MDR Construction traveled from Hattiesburg, Mississippi with more than 400 high-wire electricians and trucks in Southwest Florida to assist Florida Power & Light in case Hurricane Ian damages electric lines.
He said construction cranes should also come down before Hurricane Ian comes through.
There is also the very real threat of storm surge in “prone areas” going from 8-12 feet high, it said. It noted a 5-foot surge at high tide would impact homes along the Myakka River and U.S. 41 in North Port; 6-foot surge would impact homes along the Peace River — especially near the Sunnybreeze Golf Course and DeSoto Marina, according to the National Weather Service.
Along with an evacuation order Tuesday, the Englewood Water District shut off its water service to Manasota Key at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
“It’s standard procedure for every utility that serves a barrier island,” EWD Administrator Ray Burroughs said.
Water is also being turned off on Casey Key in Sarasota County as well.
The precaution is taken should the utility experience a significant line break during the hurricane when utility crews cannot respond.
And with the evacuation order, the South Manasota Key Association urged its members to evacuate and not disregard the order.
“This the most serious hurricane threat we have experienced on Manasota Key in the past 50 years,” the association warned members in an email Tuesday.
It also noted this type of hurricane makes tornadoes a more likely reality.
There would be easily 8-12 inches of rain from Hurricane Ian, the National Weather Service stated.
“Rivers and tributaries may rapidly overflow their banks in multiple places,” it stated. “Small streams, creeks, canals and ditches may become dangerous rivers.”
Bridges are closed to traffic when heavy winds come through the region, Charlotte County officials noted.
“The Florida Department of Transportation, Florida Highway Patrol and the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office work together to monitor wind conditions at bridges,” it said. “When wind exceeds sustained speeds (not gusts) of specified levels, usually 40 mph, the U.S. 41 and Interstate 75 bridges in Charlotte Harbor are closed. When winds hit that mark, first responders such as the Sheriff’s Office and Fire & EMS and county departments such as Utilities and Public Works suspend mobile services.”