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Hurricane Ian: 2m Without Power in Florida

Hurricane Ian: 2m Without Power in Florida
folder_openUnited States access_timeone year ago
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By Staff, Agencies

Hurricane Ian, one of the most powerful storms ever to strike the US mainland, has battered south-west Florida with high winds, rain and storm surges as it weakened and moved inland.

Nearly 2m homes and businesses were left without power as the storm swept ashore in south-west Florida on Wednesday afternoon, bringing “catastrophic” 150mph winds and a deadly storm surge of up to 18ft. Hours later, the storm – estimated to be about 140 miles wide – was downgraded from a category 4 to a category 1 storm as it moved slowly north-east, causing major flooding.

The true scale of the damage remained unclear as darkness fell, with power and communications networks down, and emergency services workers forced to take shelter from the worst of the storm.

Residential areas in Fort Myers Beach and several other coastal cities were almost completely submerged, buildings were damaged, and trees and power lines brought down. The utility company Florida Power and Light warned those in Ian’s path to brace for days without power.

In coastal Florida, desperate people posted to Facebook and other social sites, pleading for rescue for themselves or loved ones. A local sheriff’s office reported that it was getting many calls from people trapped in flooded homes.

Millions of Florida residents remain directly in the crosshairs of the storm, which was expected to remain a powerful hurricane with gusts well above 100mph as it continued on a path north-east toward Orlando, and the Atlantic coast on Thursday.

The storm surge flooded the lower level emergency room of the HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital in Port Charlotte, while fierce winds tore part of the fourth-floor roof from its intensive care unit, according to Dr Birgit Bodine, who works there.

Intensive care staff were forced to evacuate the hospital’s sickest patients – some of them on ventilators – to other floors. The medium-sized hospital spans four floors, but patients were forced into just two because of the damage.

Ian had already been blamed for several deaths and unprecedented flooding in Cuba, which was beginning to restore electricity to regions on Wednesday after a total wipeout of power on the island.

Meanwhile, a search for more than 20 people was under way off the coast of Florida after a boat carrying migrants from Cuba to the US mainland sank. Several passengers were rescued from the waters.

Joe Biden promised the full support of federal resources for search and rescue missions, and then the recovery effort in Florida, which officials warned would be changed forever by the impact of the storm.

Ian approached Florida after passing over Cuba and the Caribbean Sea as a powerful tropical storm, and building strength in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Torrential flooding and powerful winds were captured in dramatic video posted to social media that showed trees uprooted, lashing rain and submerged cars. A Weather Channel meteorologist who has covered more than 90 storms in his career said that he had experienced nothing like Hurricane Ian in over 30 years.

More than 2.5 million people were under evacuation warnings along the western Florida coast, although officials said an unknown number had chosen to stay and attempt to ride out the storm. Authorities warned those who remained would be on their own because conditions were too dangerous for emergency crews to be out.

Ian was originally predicted to make landfall around Tampa, 12o miles further north, before taking a gradual turn to the south and east after moving away from Cuba.

But with the storm’s size having grown wider than the Florida peninsula over the last 24 hours, effects were felt miles inland, and authorities said almost all areas faced some kind of threat.

The storm left at least two dead in western Cuba, state-run media reported. Violent wind gusts shattered windows and ripped metal roofs off homes and buildings.

Ian is the first major hurricane to hit the US this year, and the first to strike Florida since Michael devastated the state’s panhandle in October 2018.

Ian’s strength at landfall tied it for the fifth-strongest hurricane when measured by wind speed to strike the US.

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