forecasters expect ian to intensify into a major hurricane in the next 24 hours before it makes landfall somewhere along florida s west coast. ian poses a formidable storm surge threat for the tampa area. let s begin with chad myers, he has the latest hurricane center advisory. and chad, something that i found interesting here, officials were saying there is a higher than usual unpredict ability about how strong this storm will be and where it is going to land. true. and i think we re getting we re anxious. we want this to be perfect. we want all of the models to line up and say this is what is going to happen and that hasn t happened. a few models on the right and the left, not really agreeing. so an 80 mile per hour storm at the 11:00 advisory two minutes ago. the storm does move across cuba overnight and into the southwestern part of florida with winds and waves already on shore by 8:00 wednesday morning. there will already be wind. but the storm is still growing. wher
there will already be wind. but the storm is still growing. where does it go from right there? that is the question. the cone gets very large. does it go left or right? because that makes an entirely different forecast for everyone if it stays out into the ocean a little bit, in the gulf or does it turn to the right. we have rays there, the tampa surge, possibly five to ten. but that is all dependent on where the storm center goes. here is the wave forecast. boris, 30 foot waves in the gulf of mexico. 30 feet. now they re not going to come on shore at 30. but they could come on shore at 10 to 12 for sure. and then possibly getting up there toward the big bend with the rest of that surge. they ll be surge in tampa. there will be surge in port charlotte. and now if the storm, and we don t want this to happen, if the storm is south of tampa, there will be inverse surge. so all of the numbers that you see here, all of the forecasts could change with a change in the track.
pushing this way on the other side. we have a 4 foot inverse surge in naples. the water is down 4 feet from being sea level. and that will rush back in as the eye goes by, and then the water will rush out of miami. for now we have at least five or six more hours of miami with the water rushing onshore, pushing in the same direction with more water trying to drain out. that s never going to drain because the rain is blowing from this direction so hard. and then we get up toward tampa, sarasota, this is where we re going to see the significant wind damage, too. wind 125. what we re showing you on tv is like 70, 75. i know burma was still in the wind, but he was kind of sheltered. i know there s a building to protect him a little bit. but still all that debris that was blowing around berman, we
north carolina first gets hit on saturday, and then somewhere in new england after that, even in areas that don t get a direct hit though, there s the flooding damage, wind damage and power outages, a major pain. you re looking at live pictures from folly beach in south carolina. residents keeping an eye on irene. it could pass by though. they haven t been told to leave though. they are urged to take precautions. evacuations are under way though in the north carolina outer banks. the governor declaring a state of emergency ahead of the hurricane. many areas are accessible only by ferry so voluntary evacuations have now become mandatory. residents and tourists told to get out today. we have the website posted with where there are shelters. there are sheltering options and several counties. wilson is one. we have those on our website and the local emergency management have them published in that data, and then obviously on sunday you ll hear an immediate response from the loc