Hurricane Ian strengthened to a powerful Category 4 storm as it bore down on Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday after knocking out power to all of Cuba.

    The hurricane was around 55 miles west of Naples by around 8 a.m. ET Wednesday, with maximum sustained winds near 155 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. 

    The center of the storm was on track to approach the west coast of Florida on Wednesday morning and move onshore as soon as late morning to early afternoon.

    Storm surge flooding was occurring early Wednesday across the lower Florida Keys, the hurricane center said, while thousands of customers were already without power in an early sign of the storm's power. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters late Tuesday that the latest forecast track appeared to show the storm making landfall at Charlotte and Lee counties, south of Tampa.

    He warned that the storm could hit Florida as a Category 5 hurricane if it strengthened.

     More than 2 million people along Florida’s Gulf Coast were under evacuation orders, he said.

    Earlier, DeSantis warned that the storm would "dump an enormous amount of rain on the state of Florida."

    Rain totals of 6 to 8 inches were forecast for much of the Florida Keys and South Florida. Rainfall of a foot to 18 inches was expected for the central and the northeastern parts of the state, the hurricane center said. 

    DeSantis warned of possible tornadoes that had been spotted on radar and said bridges were likely to be closed Wednesday. 

    Thousands of people in the southern part of the state had already lost power Tuesday night — a number he said would quickly rise into the millions by Wednesday.

    In Cuba, where Ian made landfall early Tuesday in the western province of Pinar del Río, the entire island of 11.3 million people was without power after the storm damaged its power grid, the country’s national electric service said Tuesday.

    The agency said it expected power to be restored Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

    Reuters reported that violent wind gusts shattered windows and ripped metal roofs off old homes and buildings. 

    Roads into the areas directly hit by the hurricane remained impassable, blocked by downed trees and power lines, Reuters reported. 

Hirochi Robaina, the owner of a cigar factory in Pinar del Río, posted nearly two dozen photos Tuesday on Facebook showing the wreckage the storm left behind.

    "It was apocalyptic," he said. "A real disaster."