Hurricane Ian was moving closer to Florida’s west coast, the National Hurricane Center said in its 2 a.m. ET update on the storm's position.

The eye of the Category 3 storm was about 95 miles southwest of Naples, Florida, and was moving north-northeast at about 10 mph, officials said.

“On the forecast track, the center of Ian is expected to approach the west coast of Florida within the hurricane warning area this morning, and move onshore later today,” the update said.

Officials said the storm was expected to pass over central Florida on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, before emerging over the Atlantic Ocean late Thursday.

The hurricane was “expected to cause life-threatening storm surge, catastrophic winds and flooding in the Florida peninsula,” the update said.

Officials in Miami-Dade County suspended transit services at 1 a.m. ET on Wednesday, as Hurricane Ian approached Florida.

Florida’s most populous county halted its Metrobus, Metrorail, Metromover and Special Transportation Services until further notice, officials said in a news release.

-ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway

Hurricane Ian is fast approaching Florida, and the time to leave is "now" if you're in an evacuation zone, Gov. Ron DeSantis said late Tuesday during a press conference.

"Your time to evacuate is coming to an end. You need to evacuate now. You're going to start feeling major impacts of this storm relatively soon," the governor said. "Now is the time to do it, and now is the time to act."

As of Tuesday night, about 8,000 people were without power in the southern part of Florida, officials said.

Conditions are expected to continue to deteriorate across central and south Florida, with landfall currently forecast sometime between Wednesday afternoon and early evening.

Elsewhere, a tropical storm warning is now in effect along the coast of Georgia and up to Charleston, S.C.

-ABC News' Darren Reynolds, Dan Peck

President Joe Biden spoke Tuesday night with Gov. Ron DeSantis ahead of Hurricane Ian's arrival "to discuss the steps the federal government is taking to help Florida prepare," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted.

"The president and the governor committed to continued close coordination," Jean-Pierre wrote.

-ABC News' Mary Bruce

Caribbean islands such as Jamaica and Grand Cayman will start to experience the effects from the outer bands of Tropical Storm Ian within the next 24 hours, forecasts show. The islands will experience conditions such as heavy rain, possible flash flooding and storm surge.

The storm system will begin to rapidly intensify overnight into Monday before it closes in on western Cuba on Monday night.

As of 2 p.m., the sustained winds in the tropical storm remained at 50 mph as it moved west-northwest at 12 mph, the center about 265 miles away from Grand Cayman.

Hurricane warnings are in effect for Grand Cayman and western Cuba, while tropical storm warnings and watches are in effect in other portions of both islands.

As a hurricane, Ian is expected to peak at a Category 4 before weakening slightly as it looks to make landfall on the west coast or panhandle of Florida in the coming days.

There is still some uncertainty to the track Ian will take once the system enters the Gulf of Mexico.

The center of the storm and the worst of the impacts could end up heading toward the western coast of Florida's peninsula, including the Tampa area. The other possible scenario has the storm moving more due north and bringing a possible landfall along the Florida peninsula, impacting cities like Panama City and Tallahassee with more direct effects.

The storm will begin to impact the Florida keys and the southern portions of the state by Tuesday night.

-ABC News' Dan Peck