Ian arrives in Florida as a ‘extremely dangerous’ Category 4 hurricane, causing heavy flooding
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- BBC News World
image source, Getty Images
Hurricane Ian reached western Florida on Wednesday as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of more than 240 km/h, causing catastrophic flooding in several coastal locations.
Ian made landfall near Key Coastin the southwest of the peninsula, as a hurricane ‘Very dangerous’ at 3:05 pm local time (7:05 pm GMT), according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).
The hurricane caused a storm surge that extended several meters that inundated large areas of the southwest coast of Florida.
“that it One of the five worst hurricanes to hit FloridaFlorida Governor Ron DeSantis said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
Anthony Raines, a meteorologist at the NHC in Miami, told the BBC that The storms are likely to be historic.
“It’s a big storm and has a healthy structure that will take time to finally weaken as it moves over land.”
“We can see that most people in the area from Port Charlotte, Englewood, to Fort Myers, this entire part of the west coast of Florida, are now dealing with a worst case scenario, which is an eyewall for a strong Category 4 hurricane hitting the area with winds of 250 km/h and possibly A historic storm we haven’t seen off the west coast of Florida in many years.”
Gorgeous photos have surfaced from Fort Myers, showing part of the city being submerged in water.
Marco Island, located in southwest Florida and connected by bridges to the city of Naples, was also inundated in some areas.
Severe flooding was also reported in the southwestern city of Naples. The photos show firefighters deep in the water at one of their stations.
In the video posted on Facebook, firefighters are seen struggling to load their equipment onto emergency vehicles amid the floods.
Hurricane Ian: storm surge engulfs the Naples Fire Department
According to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the city saw the city’s water level rise above 2.74 meters around 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Ian’s path is expected to veer north, Alert large urban centers How Orlando.
more than 1And the5 millionalsonhe is of families They were without electricity Statewide, out of a total of 11 million, DeSantis said there will be more outages as the storm progresses.
Ian’s damage has been reported since early Wednesday morning, with damage from strong winds, storm surge and scattered tornadoes.
Most Florida residents are under a state of emergency.
image source, Getty Images
“Disastrous tidal wave”
Storm Ian is “disastrous” in cities like Fort Myers or Punta Gorda, with sea levels rising several meters and water entering residential areas.
Accuweather experts said the storm could “completely alter” the appearance of some islands off Florida’s southwest coast.
Hours before the storm arrived, Manatee County Administrator Scott Hope said they estimated they had taken in about 120,000 people who were in mandatory evacuation areas.
He said that the shelters set up were only about 3,000 people in them.
“Hopefully they can take cover at a friend’s house,” Hope said.
image source, Getty Images
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