Florida Activates 2,500 Guardsmen as Hurricane Ian Approaches: ‘Anticipate Fuel Disruptions,’ Power Outages

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has declared a state of emergency for all Florida counties, and the state has activated 2,500 guardsmen in anticipation of Hurricane Ian’s landfall, as the governor warned Floridians to anticipate power outages and fuel disruptions.

“Make preparations now, and I know a lot of people have been doing it throughout the state of Florida,” DeSantis said on Sunday during a press conference at the State of Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee, urging people to prepare by obtaining food, water, batteries, medicine, and fuel.

“Anticipate —  particularly the closer you are to where the eye of the storm makes landfall — anticipate power outages. That is something that will likely to happen with a hurricane of this magnitude. Anticipate fuel disruptions. That’s something that could happen with a hurricane of this magnitude,” he continued.

“Also anticipate that in certain areas of the state, if you are in a very vulnerable area, there may even be evacuations that are issued. So listen to your local officials and heed those warnings.” he said.

He added that the state has activated the Florida National Guard.

“They are activating 2,500 guardsmen at the moment, and if there is a need for more, then we could do more, and our state EOC [Emergency Operations Center] is at a Level One. I want to thank everybody for working hard not just here at the State of Florida, but also at all our local counties who do a really good job with emergency preparedness and emergency management,” he continued.

WATCH:

Hurricane Ian is expected to intensify to a major hurricane on Monday as it nears western Cuba, but at the time of this writing, had maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center’s (NHC) 11 a.m. update.

“Hurricane-force winds are possible in the hurricane watch area in west-central Florida beginning Wednesday morning with tropical storm conditions possible by late Tuesday,” the 11 a.m. update from the NHC reads, warning of the possibility of  “life-threatening storm surge” along “much of the Florida West Coast, with the highest risk from Fort Myers to the Tampa Bay region.”