Sunday 7am Update: Ian Strengthens Over Cuba

The 5am update from Sunday morning shows Tropical Storm Ian is strengthening over Cuba. Currently the forecast shows Ian will be a major hurricane as it passes over West Cuba on Tuesday morning.

As of now the West coast of Florida is still in the cone of uncertainty. Remember tracks change so continue to prep for the worst and hope for the best.

Tampa Bay residents should take advantage of the nice weekend weather while it's still here. Now is a perfect time to take some precautions to prepare for the high winds, flooding and power outages that Ian could bring.

ABC Action News weather guru Denis Phillips recently shared a few dozen tips to get you through a hurricane. We've been really lucky so far this hurricane season in Florida, but we know our time will come. When it does, preparation is key. And Denis came up with some tips that might make your experience a lot less miserable. Here are 10 of my favorites. Some are common sense. But others are pretty creative ideas to get through the storm with less stress.

Denis points out that without air conditioning, anything dirty will start to stink your place up! And when the AC goes out, you'll want clean sheets because you'll be sweating a lot!

When you know the storm's coming charge up those laptops, and OLD phones... not just the one you use now. Old phones call still call 911!

Use that water to flush toilets.

Freeze cooked food too. Denis says he loves a hardboiled egg as a snack on that first day without power.

Stuff all your important stuff in a backpack so it's easy to grab in case you need to leave quickly.

If power goes out for a while or systems go down, it'll be good to have some cash on hand.

This is certainly one I wouldn't have thought of doing... but it makes sense. Higher temps in the room will lower the temp in your fridge to preserve those foods longer.

Hit the shower just before the storm's about to hit.

Unplug your electronics because there will likely be power surges.

If the coin stayed on top after the power went out, your food stayed frozen!

I know if you have water to flush your toilet with, you're good, however, not every toilet will flush, even with water, and you might need an additional toilet, especially if you have others staying with you, so the best home made port-o-potty I've ever seen is really easy. Take a bucket, like a Home Depot or Lowes type bucket🪣, fill it with a garbage bag and about 1/4 to 1/2 full with kitty litter. Then take a pool koozy and slice it down one side, half way through. Place the koozy around the top of the bucket and cut it to fit the top of the bucket just right. Put a roll of toilet paper on the handle of the bucket and wha-lah, you've got a relatively comfortable, durable port-o-potty. When it gets full, pull out the garbage bag and replace it with another and fill it about 1/4 to 1/2 with litter and you're all set.