Hurricane Ian has already become an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm with maximum winds of nearly 140 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said early Wednesday.

In anticipation of landfall, which is expected Wednesday afternoon, the center warned of "potentially deadly storm surge, catastrophic winds and flooding in the Florida peninsula." The center updated its warnings to the population.

Early Wednesday morning, the National Hurricane Center noted rapidly deteriorating weather conditions along the southeast coast of Florida.

Ian is the first hurricane of this level to hit Florida since 2018. Its effects are expected to last through the weekend and cause power outages. It arrives in Florida after wreaking havoc in Cuba, where it has left the entire island without power since Tuesday night. Governor Ron DeSantis warned of the need to evacuate a number of indicated areas following the arrival of several tornadoes in Florida and the forecast of more to come.

A politicized hurricane

Amy Klobuchar, Democratic senator from Minnesota, took advantage of Hurricane Ian' s landfall in Florida to get political and ask for votes for the Democratic Party in the midterm elections in November. The senator suggested Tuesday that a victory for her party would help stop hurricanes as part of the Democratic climate agenda.

In an interview on MSNBC's Morning Joe , Klobuchar said that the Democrats had legislated on climate change for the first time in their Inflation Reduction Act and that is why it was necessary to vote for the Democratic Party. Her statements came at the height of the disaster in Cuba and with Hurricane Ian about to make landfall on the Florida coast.