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I'm john berman live in tampa, florida. this is cnn's special coverage of hurricane ian which is expected to make landfall sometime in the next several hours. we just got new information from the national hurricane center. listen to this. they had an aircraft in the center of this storm measuring sustained winds, sustained winds of 155 miles per hour. that is just two miles an hour short of a category ar5 hurrica and there is still time for it to strengthen. 155 mile per hour sustained winds. this could have a devastating impact as it makes landfall south of here. the expected landfall probabl...

As that wind speed picks up, 15050 miles per hour now, it does increase the threat of the storm surge. that wind pushes the water even more potentially even higher which is why there is still so much concern up and down the southern coast. down here in tampa where the wind has let up, we've been getting the bands repeatedly. up and down the coast you see businesses boarded up, homes evacuated. some 2.5 million people under some kind of evacuation order. there is certain to be a very bad economic impact from the storm. let's get to rahel solomon for that. >> reporter: florida's economy is massi...

Closed its airport. orlando, meantime, officials say it will stop commercial operations after about 10:30 eastern. one thing they're not expecting a major impact to is the price of oil and gas. that's simply because florida, john, is not a major producer or refiner of oil and gas. the impacts of this could be quite significant. still too early to know but certainly a lot of questions moving ahead, john. >> yeah. won't be good. rahel solomon, thank you for that. i want to go to brian gleeson, official in port charlotte, florida. could very well be in the direct zone where this now very powerf...

Going to slow down to approximately 5 miles per hour. this is significant because what this means is floridians are going to experience the impacts of this storm for a very long time. >> reporter: southwest florida already feeling the impact of the storm with hurricane force wind gusts and heavy rain. >> if there is a flooded roadway, do not drive through the flooded roadway. you do not know what is going on with the roadway underneath. please turn around and do not drowned. >> reporter: a tornado touched down and downed trees and planes overturned at north perry airport. national guard member...

Watching and hoping for the best on the human toll, the human effort. the storm will have pretty significant economic impact. how large it will be depends on how large the storm is and how long it lasts. one of the states largest employers, disney, announcing that it will be closed today and thursday. similar announcements coming from other amusement parks like seaworld, orlando, universal, busch gardens. we know 11 waffle house restaurants are closed. supermarket chain publix says it will close stores in 11 counties as well. cruise lines canceling sailings or avoiding the path of ian. we'll l...