Ian's crawls over C. Fla.: Varying impacts, what to do & timing

Ian made landfall on Wednesday afternoon near Cayo Costa in Southwest, Florida. Storm surge battered the southwest coast of Florida flooding and washing out cars, houses, and resorts’ parking lots.

Ian is set to continue losing forward speed as it loses some of its punch. Residents to the southwest of Orlando will experience hurricane-force winds, but as Ian moves to the northeast its winds will have tropical storm force.

Ian will transition from being a storm surge, wind life-threatening system to a big rain maker over inland Central Florida. Along the east central coast, the risk for storm surge increases as Ian is set to approach the coast and make its way over water again, this time over the Atlantic.

Since this is going to be a prolonged event, expect widespread power outages across Central Florida. Please stay safe.

Conditions are becoming very dangerous for residents from Lee County to Osceola County. You will hear lots of noise tonight into the overnight hours. Remember the system will be moving very slowly. By 2 a.m. in the morning Ian’s center will barely be in Osceola County. Brevard county will start to get strong winds by midnight, but the strong tropical storm force winds will be present through tomorrow afternoon.

For the Orlando area, conditions will remain dangerous through mid-morning, then gradually improve in the afternoon on Thursday.