Hurricane Ian made landfall Wednesday afternoon as a major Category 4 storm near Cayo Costa along the southwestern coast of Florida, the National Hurricane Center reported.
The “extremely dangerous” storm made landfall with maximum sustained winds near 150 miles per hour, according to the center.
Floodwaters raced down streets and enveloped lawns along Florida’s southwest coast as heavy rains and high winds from historic Hurricane Ian roared.
“So this is going to be a nasty, nasty day, two days,” Gov. Ron DeSantis warned in a briefing Wednesday.
More than 1 million homes and businesses across Florida are without power, according to the tracking website poweroutage.us. Power outages should be expected statewide, Florida Power & Light warned.
As of 4 p.m., the storm’s center was located 20 miles northwest of Fort Myers. Ian will continue to slam much of the state with life-threatening storm surge, catastrophic winds and flooding, the National Hurricane Center said.
“We are now forecasting a catastrophic storm surge of 12 to 16 feet from Englewood to Bonita Beach,” the hurricane center advisory warned.
At 150 mph, Ian’s stunning wind speeds were within 7 mph of Category 5, the highest status on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale of Hurricane Intensity.
Continue reading HERE
Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/hurricane-ian-makes-landfall-on-floridas-southwest-coast-as-major-category-4-storm-live-updates/ar-AA12lAGH
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
