Ian could become 1st major hurricane to hit Tampa in more than 100 years

People walk on a Florida beach ahead of Hurricane Ian's arrival.
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Tampa Bay is bracing for what could be its first hit from a major hurricane in 101 years.

Hurricane Ian, which made landfall Tuesday morning in Cuba, is expected to reach western Florida on Wednesday afternoon or evening as a strong Category 3 storm. Residents of Tampa, Fort Myers, and Sarasota are being encouraged to evacuate, with the National Hurricane Center warning of "a danger of life-threatening inundation ... from rising water moving inland from the coastline."

The last major hurricane to slam into Tampa Bay was the Tampa/Tarpon Springs Hurricane, which made landfall on Oct. 25, 1921. Today, it would be classified as a Category 3 storm, with winds at 120 mph. At the time, it was the most destructive hurricane to hit the Tampa area since 1848, The New York Times says, completely destroying homes and buildings and sending ships crashing into docks. Coastal waters rose by 11 feet, the National Weather Service said, and at least eight people died, most by drowning.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Tampa's beaches slope into a shallow sea floor, and the 1921 storm showed "how vulnerable the region is," Austen Flannery, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Tampa, told the Times. Read more about the connection between Tampa's geography and storm surges at The New York Times.

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.