Hurricane Ian barrelled into western Cuba today as a Category 3 storm, leaving more than one million people without electricity.
Ian made landfall in Cuba's Pinar del Rio province early this morning.
The US National Hurricane Center says Cuba suffered "significant wind and storm surge damage" when the hurricane struck with sustained top winds of 205 kilometres per hour.
Violent wind gusts shattered windows and ripped metal roofs off homes and buildings throughout the region, where many houses are decades old and infrastructure is antiquated. Roads into the areas directly hit by the hurricane remained impassable, blocked by downed trees and powerlines.
Ian was expected to get even stronger over the warm Gulf of Mexico, reaching top winds of 209 kilometres per hour as it approaches the southwest coast of Florida, where 2.5 million people were ordered to evacuate.
Tropical storm-force winds were predicted across the southern peninsula late Tuesday, reaching hurricane-force Wednesday — when the hurricane's eye is projected to make landfall.
With tropical storm-force winds extending 185 kilometers from Ian's centre, damage is expected across a wide area of Florida.
