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Hurricane Ian: torrential rains, flooded streets, power cuts... Florida hit hard

2022-09-29T06:06:05.531Z


More than 2 million homes were without power Wednesday night in Florida, mostly around the hurricane's path.


It could be "one of the five strongest hurricanes to ever hit Florida".

Hurricane Ian swept through Florida on Wednesday with high winds and torrential rains, causing "catastrophic" flooding and widespread power outages.

With winds of up to 185 km/h, Ian made landfall along the coast of Cayo Costa, in the southwest of the state, at 3:05 p.m. local time (1905 GMT), according to the National Center for American hurricanes (NHC).

Near the Keys archipelago, poor conditions capsized a boat carrying migrants.

Coastguards were looking for another 20 people, with three rescued and four others managing to swim to shore.

Currently in Fort Myers, Florida.

Video by Loni Architects #flwx #Ian #hurricane pic.twitter.com/8nfncFlG9G

— Kaitlin Wright (@wxkaitlin) September 28, 2022

Previously classified in category 3, out of the 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, Ian was downgraded to category 1, the NHC announced around 03:00 GMT.

More than 2 million homes were without electricity Wednesday evening in Florida, mainly around the path of the hurricane, according to the specialized site PowerOutage.

Totally flooded streets

The town of Punta Gorda thus plunged into darkness.

In the night, only a few buildings equipped with generators remained illuminated, the only sounds around being the roar of the wind and the pouring rain.

A few hours earlier, the city had experienced a brief respite as it found itself in the eye of the hurricane.

But the squalls and the rain came back with even more force, toppling road signs and washing away pieces of roofs and tree branches.

In Naples, southwest Florida, images from MSNBC showed completely flooded streets and cars floating in the current.

The flood could sometimes exceed 3 meters, announced Wednesday evening the governor of the State, Ron DeSantis.

The meteorological phenomenon should then move inland during the day, and emerge over the western Atlantic by Thursday evening.

Hurricane Ian is the fifth most powerful storm to hit the US in terms of wind speed.

https://t.co/NyG2NHGu8d pic.twitter.com/61YBCEyzs5

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) September 28, 2022

Hurricane Ian is expected to weaken as it passes through land, but could still cause significant damage as it reaches eastern Florida, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

A “very dangerous” storm for “the days to come”

Governor Ron DeSantis said Wednesday evening that it would probably be “one of the five strongest hurricanes to ever hit Florida”.

For her part, the director of Fema (the federal agency in charge of the management of natural disasters), Deanne Criswell, affirmed that Ian would continue to be a “very dangerous” storm for “the days to come”.

Hurricane Ian earlier hit Cuba on Tuesday, killing two people and plunging the island into darkness.

As the surface of the oceans warms, the frequency of the most intense hurricanes, with stronger winds and greater precipitation, increases, but not the total number of hurricanes.

Source: leparis

All news articles on 2022-09-29

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