Hurricane Ian is set to make landfall on the west coast of Florida later today.
As of 5:00 AM, the storm had intensified into a category 4 hurricane with winds as high as 140 mph. In a briefing on Tuesday, Jamie Rhone , Acting Director of the National Hurricane Center, said, "You can see a well defined hurricane with a clear eye. This is not what you want to see in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, but it's unfortunately unfolding as predicted."
The National Weather Service predicts that it’s likely that the Athens and Northeast Georgia area will see the impact of the storm on Friday and over the weekend.
Governor Brian Kemp has declared a state of emergency across Georgia beginning Thursday at 7:00 AM, and has put 500 members of the Georgia National Guard on standby.
Kemp is expected to pay a visit Wednesday morning to the state’s operations center in Atlanta.
