2022 Hurricane Season

In preparation for Hurricane Ian, water managers from South Florida Water Management District made pre-storm adjustments to operating levels for water control structures throughout the regional flood control system.

The Sunshine State is so vast that while Hurricane Ian saturates Southwest Florida the Panhandle’s parched forests are ready to burn. The Florida Forestry Service is listing the wildfire threat in Northwest Florida “critical” due to a combination of low humidity, high pressure to the north of the state, and very dry soil.

Hurricane Ian is forecast to make landfall along the southwest Florida Coast Wednesday as a major hurricane.

Florida Power & Light, the largest utility in the state, has nearly 16,000 workers in 24 staging areas. Tampa Electric has about 3,000 workers from a dozen states poised to help restore power after the storm passes.

The center of Ian is forecast to move over central Florida Wednesday night and Thursday morning and emerge over the western Atlantic by late Thursday.

Despite mandatory evacuations in communities throughout Southwest Florida in advance of Hurricane Ian Tuesday, the lack of traffic on roadways from South Cape Coral to Interstate 75 made it clear residents were not heeding the warnings.

The free network includes 90,000 hotspots in Central, North and Southwest Florida and the Panhandle.

The proximity of and impacts from Hurricane Ian were cause for alerts about tornadoes earlier Tuesday.

Evacuation orders have gone out for areas across Southwest Florida and shelters are opening in advance of Hurricane Ian’s approach. Here's information on evacuation orders and shelter locations in Manatee and Sarasota Counties.

To evacuate...or not. That's the dilemma facing thousands of people in Southwest Florida as Hurricane Ian approaches. Some decided to ride out the storm, while others loaded their cars and headed for higher ground.