Hurricane Ian Update with Drew Steele of WFSX Radio in Fort Myers/Naples

CLAY: We are joined now, by the way, more seriously, many of you who listen in the state of Florida are in the cone of potential arrival. Where exactly this storm, Hurricane Ian, is going to land, is unclear.

But one of the areas is becoming the Fort Myers, Naples area, as it appears, at least the most recent news that I have seen, this hurricane appears to be moving a bit south of Tampa. And we are down there.

We did a big event last year, had so many fantastic listeners in the Fort Myers, Naples area. We’re joined now by Drew Steele. He’s the morning host on WSFX radio. I met a lot of you down there. He was at our event.

He’s on the Drew Steele Show from 6 to 9 a.m. Eastern. Drew, what is it like in the Fort Myers, Naples area right now? And I imagine you are monitoring this news on the hurricane very closely. What’s the latest in terms of expected landfall?

STEELE: Yeah. Well, right now, you know, the one thing about this storm that has been so crazy — and then what is so surreal about all of it is that you watch this in slow motion in real time going across the tropics.

You know, there’s something to be said about being able to see and have that heads up and have time to prepare, but how slow this is moving, and so, as it’s been coming across the tropics, getting onto the other side of Cuba, and now we see the storm, we see the eye, the definition of this eye.

And the one thing has been all the modeling and how it’s been all over the place for a while until recently, you know, everybody was talking about it being a Panhandle event and then they started talking about it being a closer to Tampa event north.

And then they started talking about it being a specific Tampa event, and now it looks like it’s going to be in the latest modelling that go we’re seeing south, probably in the South of Sarasota between Port Charlotte and Sarasota.

So, you’re talking about a little south of Tampa in the Sarasota area and then north of Port Charlotte. And remember something. The one thing about this storm that I think has us all on edge a little bit is the fact that the path that it’s taking reminds a lot of people here of Hurricane Charley in 2004.

If you know anything about Hurricane Charley, the one thing that happened here was it was gonna be something off the coasts and people were prepared for that and then all of a sudden it took this late jog that ended up coming into southwest Florida where we were not thinking it was going to be that way.

And it ended up hitting a town called Punta Gorda pretty hard to the point where, you know, you have turn of the century old Florida homes there were just wiped out, just completely gone. The town was forever changed.

And so that’s kind of the thing we’re looking at right now to try to figure out this is gonna be a south of Tampa storm, how big it’s gonna be. The latest, obviously, is Cat 3. People are talking Cat 4, that it would be up to as it gets closer, and then how slow it’s going.

You know, we’re used to fast moving storms, something that gets across, gets out quick. But this seems to be going so slow, so it’s kind of agonizing to watch and to wait, you know, these hours out to see where it is. But we are definitely ready.

BUCK: Drew, what are some of the preparations that have been underway, I mean, for people who don’t live in Florida or haven’t been in a part of the country where hurricanes are an unfortunate fact of life, what are some of the preparations in terms of evacuation, and how’s all that going? Ron DeSantis was on TV earlier this morning speaking to Floridians. Just bring us into how that’s coming along.

STEELE: Yeah, the governor has been great, and so has locally. The emergency management locally in Lee and Collier County is a fantastic and has been just great in keeping the information going. But, like I said before, when, you know, the idea that you have so much time to prepare is such a good thing.

A lot of times, you know, people look and they think, okay. Well, it’s the eye. That’s what I have to look at, I have to look at that dot on that spaghetti model, you know, all the spaghetti models you see, you see the lines and you think, “Okay, the dot or the line is what I have to focus on.”

When in reality, the width of the storm and in this case it’s the same type of thing, you know, you’re gonna get 60, 70 miles, maybe 80 miles out from the center is where you’re gonna feel the hurricane force. And so, you can see the dot and maybe the dot isn’t gonna be over you, but you’re certainly gonna feel all of those effects.

So, what ends up happening is slowly we’ve been having these areas in southwest Florida where they’re having mandatory evacuations — they’re not gonna come knock on doors necessarily, that’s not gonna happen, but they are asking people to leave certain areas, the low-lying areas certainly across the coast, up and down the west side of Florida.

And then, you know, ultimately, we know this is coming. And every year we prepare, every year we will have moments on the air and on TV and other places where we’ll talk about your hurricane preparedness kit, everything you’re gonna need to have together throughout the season, you know, the opportunity to buy sometimes tax-free to be able to say get those items your flashlights, your batteries.

And right now, the one thing we look at too is the generators, you know, making sure we have the power because the one thing that people seem to forget about is when this storm goes out of the southwest Florida area and then you start looking at no power, a situation where you may or may not have that.

If you don’t have power, we’re gonna be 85, 90 degrees, sometimes, you know, you’ve got upper eighties, low nineties, and a lot of humidity, and that air-conditioning is gonna be needed. And so certainly people want that power and to have those generators ready as well.

Not everybody has the opportunities to get them and they’re gone. I mean, everything, you know, you get to places now where, you know, you start to see hit or miss scattered gas stations, some have gas, some have run out, you know, the water, the shelves go quickly. But we always are looking at that preparedness throughout the year.

BUCK: Drew Steele on WSFX radio in Fort Myers, Naples, our affiliate down there. Drew, thanks for being with us. Appreciate it.

STEELE: Yeah. Absolutely, guys. See you soon.

BUCK: Be safe. And all Floridians listening right now, please be safe. Governor DeSantis has given good guidance and follow the guidance and stay safe during this hurricane ’cause it looks like it’s gonna be a rough one.