Ian Poses Threat to Florida as It Strengthens and Turns

After Tropical Storm/Hurricane Fiona flooded out much of southeastern Puerto Rico while the island suffered power loss after its center passed to the south, it struck the Dominican Republic straight on before passing through the Bahama and into the open Atlantic.  I get the fact that Puerto Rico is a part of the United States and definitely merits a lot of media coverage.  What I don't get is why I've heard virtually no information on how this storm affected the neighboring island of Hispaniola with its eastern nation directly struck.  Anyway, here in Florida we're now consumed with thinking about Ian, which for now is a weak tropical storm in the central Caribbean and heading west to pass south of Jamaica before turning more northward into western Cuba and, ultimately, the west coast of Florida.  In the process it's moving through very warm waters while the upper atmosphere is not expected to provide resistance to its strengthening.  So, Ian could very well become an extremely dangerous hurricane by the time it strikes the US mainland in Florida...the exact point of which they're uncertain.  But this morning...and it could change again...many of the computer projections have it passing very close if not over north central Florida where I live here in Gainesville.  So, I'm concerned about Ian, but not nearly as much as folks living on the west coast of Florida should be.  According to The Weather Channel's Greg Postel, the current "cone of uncertainty" for Ian over the state of Florida is very wide, meaning that meteorologists as yet do not know with a high degree of confidence exactly where it will make landfall.  They believe that it will make its impact here sometime next week around Wednesday and Thursday.  And almost as an afterthought, I heard one meteorologist mention that after passing through Florida, the storm may pose a direct threat to the Carolinas.  Guess I'll be toggling a bit between weather and sports on TV this weekend.  Time for The Weather Channel to send its reporters to the various Florida beaches, finally...