As Hurricane Ian approaches, your business needs to be ready

With Hurricane Ian heading directly for the Gulf Coast, business owners are being urged to prepare for both catastrophic damage and to maintain continuity in the days, or possibly weeks, after the storm has moved on.

The storm, which at 5 p.m. Monday had sustained winds of 100 mph, is still a couple of days away but was already disrupting life across the region early in the week. Walmart was filled with shoppers on what is usually a slow day, long lines of cars waited for gas pumps at a Wawa on Gandy Boulevard and one Tampa Shell station was left without fuel as cars pulled into the parking lot only to drive off empty.

Read more: Flight cancellations, airport updates from Hurricane Ian at TPA, PIE, SRQ, RSW, PGD