Ian is not messing around. Now a cat 4 and still strengthening. This dropsonde shows 131 knots at the surface which is about 151mph. If there are a few more of these, probably gets close to Cat 5
My wife has family in Port Charlotte and Bradenton. Her cousin is a nurse and is at the hospital for the duration. Her grandmother evacuated inland. She has no clue where her idiot brother is.
Everyone needs to get out of the way of this. I have relatives in Sarasota who evacuated to West Palm Beach yesterday. This could be as serious as Hurricane Andrew which was the last Cat 5 storm to make landing on the Continental US and that wiped out a USAF base.
For the areas about to get the brunt of this, it's too late for anyone to do anything other than hunker down and pray. Yikes.
For anyone trying to swim, surf or just try to check out the hurricane what happens next is up to them. It's very risky for EMS personal to go out and rescue dumbasses who don't take this seriously.