After belting Cuba on Tuesday, Hurricane Ian is moving towards Florida as a Category 3 storm with winds reaching a maximum speed of 120 mph.
Florida officials are calling for residents on the state's west coast to evacuate as a life-threatening storm surge is expected in the Fort Myers and Tampa areas.
The acting deputy director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Michael Brennan, shared with CNN that those on the coast must get out now, or else they might get stuck.
"Today is really going to be your last day to … actually move out (of) the storm surge warning area," Brennan said Tuesday morning.
To help with evacuations, Governor Ron DeSantis announced on Monday that he was suspending all tolls in Tampa in an effort to encourage evacuations, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
"This is a really, really big hurricane at this point," he said. "The storm surge is likely to be significant given how big the storm is."
The storm was over the southeastern Gulf of Mexico at 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday after making landfall in Cuba earlier in the day, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.
Ian left up to 16 inches of rain and mudslides, with flash flooding possible across parts of Cuba, according to the hurricane center.
Florida is expected to be the next up in Ian's path of destruction, with rains and tropical storm-strength winds beginning on Tuesday. The life-threatening storm surge and flooding rains are expected to come later, Wednesday and Thursday.
One positive in the storm is gas prices have fallen throughout Florida, with the current average sitting at $3.39 a gallon, according to AAA.
However, in certain parts of the state, prices are even lower, with the average in Pensacola hitting $3.17, AAA reported.
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