“This one has just strengthened and strengthened and it’s going to be the real deal,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned at a 7:30 a.m. briefing.
About 2.5 million people along Florida’s Gulf Coast had been under evacuation orders in advance of the storm. Collier to Sarasota counties are considered at highest risk of winds, storm surge and flooding, officials said.
More than 40,000 power outages have already been reported in the state, DeSantis said. Many bridges across the region also have been closed with high winds expected. Following landfall within the next few hours, the storm is expected to cut a damaging course across Florida, spawning floods and tornadoes before leaving the state sometime Thursday.
Thousands of people in the southern part of the state have already lost power. DeSantis said Wednesday that 30,000 utility linemen are in place across the state to help with restoration, once the storm moves past. But the storm’s increasing strength is drawing added attention. DeSantis said Floridians remember the widespread destruction that Hurricane Michael brought to the state’s Panhandle in 2018. John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau.
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