Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned in a briefing Wednesday morning that some areas of the state have begun to lose power and warned that "millions of people" will experience outages as Hurricane Ian approaches the coast, with predictions of a massive storm surge.
Watch DeSantis' full briefing in the player above.
LIVE MAP: Track the path of Hurricane Ian
"You look at the number of people that are on the southwest coast of Florida, for example. Fortunately, most of them are not going to have their homes destroyed. But most of them are going to lose power," DeSantis said. "You're going to have services that are going to be interrupted."
DeSantis said the state had begun mass mobilization of resources to restore power as soon as possible, and called resumption of resources a "top priority."
But the severity of the storm means it's possible the state will see "major structural damage" to infrastructure, which could hamper efforts to restore services.
He also said more than 7,000 members of the Florida National Guard and national guards from other states are standing by to assist in recovery efforts, as are urban search and rescue teams.
Air Force hurricane hunters confirmed Ian gained strength over warm Gulf of Mexico water after battering Cuba, bringing down the country's electricity grid and leaving the entire island without power. Ian was centered about 60 miles (95 kilometers) west-southwest of Naples at 10 a.m., swirling toward the coast at 10 mph (17 kph).
The massive storm appeared on track to slam ashore somewhere north of Fort Myers and some 125 miles (201 kilometers) south of Tampa, sparing the bay area from a rare direct hit from a hurricane. The area is popular with retirees and tourists drawn to pristine white sandy beaches and long barrier islands, which forecasters said could be completely inundated.
Catastrophic storm surges could push as much as 12 to 18 feet (3.7 to 5.5 meters) of water over a nearly 100-mile (160-kilometer) stretch of coastline, from Bonita Beach north through Fort Myers and Charlotte Harbor to Englewood, the hurricane center warned. Rainfall near the area of landfall could top 18 inches (46 centimeters).
"It's time to hunker down and prepare for the storm," DeSantis said earlier. "Do what you need to do to stay safe. If you are where that storm is approaching, you're already in hazardous conditions. It's going to get a lot worse very quickly."
More than 2.5 million people were under mandatory evacuation orders, but by law no one could be forced to flee.