SARASOTA, Fla., Sept 28 (Reuters) – Hurricane Ian intensified to an extremely dangerous Category 4 storm on Wednesday as it barreled closer to Florida’s Gulf Coast, with residents emptying grocery shelves, boarding up windows and fleeing to evacuation shelters.

In an update, the U.S. National Hurricane Center put Ian’s location around 80 miles (130 km) southwest of Punta Gorda, Florida with maximum sustained winds of 155 miles per hour (250 km per hour).

While upgrading Ian an to an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane, the NHC said the storm was expected to weaken somewhat after reaching land.

“The storm is here,” Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said, warning of widespread power outages and the possibility of tornadoes.

“Stay indoors. Stay away from windows,” he told an early morning news conference.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis warned that people in Collier, Lee, Charlotte and Sarasota counties were no longer safe to evacuate and urged people to get off the roads and stay inside.

“It’s time to hunker down and prepare for this storm. This is a powerful storm that should be treated like a tornado was approaching your home,” he said. “This is going to be a nasty, nasty day or two days. This is going to be a rough stretch.”

Ian hammered Cuba on Tuesday and left the entire Caribbean island nation without power, and was expected to crash ashore into Florida on Wednesday evening south of Tampa Bay, somewhere between Sarasota and Naples.

The first hurricane advisory on Wednesday had put Ian’s maximum sustained winds near 120 mph (195 km per hour), ranking it a Category 3, but said the storm was expected to strengthen.

The Miami-based National Hurricane Center warned that Ian would also unleash pounding surf, life-threatening coastal flooding and more than a foot of rain in some areas.

Authorities urged more than 2.5 million residents to evacuate their homes for higher ground.

The Florida coastal zone at highest risk for U.S. landfall is home to miles of sandy beaches, scores of resort hotels and numerous mobile home parks, a favorite with retirees and vacationers alike.

“We’re right on the water, along a canal, so … this could be devastating,” Melissa Wolcott Martino, 78, a retired magazine editor in St. Petersburg, said as she and her husband loaded valuables and pets into their car for a drive to their son’s home north of Tampa on Tuesday.

By late Tuesday night,…