The Latest Breaking News from National Hurricane Center

MIAMI — Hurricane Ian’s projected path shifted to the south Tuesday and farther away from Tampa Bay, a heavily populated region highly vulnerable to storm surge flooding, but the storm was still shaping up as a potential wide-ranging disaster for Florida.

A damaged hospital, destroyed homes, downed trees and power poles, and towns where residents wade through waist-deep water. Those are some of the images coming out of Cuba in the aftermath of the destruction left by Category 3 Hurricane Ian, which battered the island’s westernmost provinces Tuesday.

MIAMI — Hurricane Ian’s project path shifted slightly Tuesday, on a track that would push the powerful storm’s to an earlier potential landfall south of the Tampa Bay area — a small but significant change for a Gulf Coast vulnerable to storm surge.

The Category 3 hurricane was about five miles south of the city of Pinar Del Rio, with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said

Cuba’s westernmost province has been battered by Category 3 Hurricane Ian during the early hours of Tuesday, leaving destruction and uncertainty among the residents of small towns and the city of Pinar del Río.

Florida is in the middle of a historic storm that could cause billions in damage.

As Hurricane Ian intensifies on its way toward the Florida coast, hurricane hunters are in the sky doing something almost unimaginable: flying through the center of the storm. With each pass, the scientists aboard these planes take measurements that satellites can’t and send them to forecasters at the National Hurricane…

TAMPA, Fla. — Tropical Storm Ian intensified overnight into a hurricane and has continued to get stronger throughout the day, according to the National Hurricane Center, and forecasters expect the storm will be a major hurricane by the end of the day or early Tuesday.

MIAMI — A large swath of Florida’s Gulf Coast is under hurricane and storm surge watches and warnings Monday from Category 2 Hurricane Ian, which whipped up overnight and is expected to turn into a major storm as it heads toward a potential first landfall in western Cuba.