Hurricane Ian live updates: Storm strengthens to Category 4 as it nears Florida

strengthened into a Category 4 storm as it barreled toward Florida Wednesday, with the center of the storm on track to make landfall on the state's west coast as soon as this afternoon.The National Hurricane Center has warned of “life-threatening storm surge, catastrophic winds and flooding in the Florida Peninsula," with millions under evacuation orders.the forecast track appeared to show the storm hitting south of Tampa.

Florida has 24 such phosphogypsum stacks, most of them concentrated in mining areas in the central part of the state. About 30 million tons of this slightly radioactive waste is generated every year, according to the Florida Industrial and Phosphate Research Institute. “A major storm event like the one we are bracing for can inundate the facilities with more water than the open-air ponds can handle,” Ragan Whitlock, staff attorney for the Center for Biological Diversity environmental group, said in an email Tuesday. “We are extremely concerned about the potential impacts Hurricane Ian may have on phosphate facilities around the state,” Whitlock added.

A leak in March 2021 at a stack called Piney Point resulted in the release of an estimated 215 million gallons of polluted water into Tampa Bay, causing massive fish kills. State officials, overseen by a court-appointed receiver, are working with a $100 million appropriation to shut down that long-troubled location.

Hurricane Ian is expected to make landfall in southwest Florida on Wednesday before cutting through the state, close to many of the gypsum stacks.

Bullshit, I'm nowhere near Florida.

I care about FL as much as America cares about Puerto Rico.

Hope GovRonDeSantis is still running the airhops to MarthasVineyard

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