Hurricane Ian made landfall in southwest Florida near Cayo Costa on Wednesday as a massive Category 4 storm.
About 2.5 million people had been ordered to evacuate southwest Florida before the storm hit the coast with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (241 kph). The storm was heading inland, where it was expected to weaken, but residents in central Florida could still experience hurricane-force winds.
Before making its way through the Gulf of Mexico to Florida, Hurricane Ian tore into western Cuba as a major hurricane Tuesday, killing two people and bringing down the country’s electrical grid.
The center of the massive storm had lingered offshore for hours, which was likely to mean more rain and damage from a hurricane. Catastrophic storm surges could push 12 to 18 feet (3.6 to 5.5 meters) of water across more than 250 miles (400 kilometers) of coastline, from Bonita Beach to Englewood, forecasters warned.
“This is going to be a nasty nasty day, two days,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said, stressing that people in Ian’s path along the coast should rush to the safest possible shelter and stay there.
Off the coast on Sanibel Island near Fort Myers, swirling water flooded streets and was halfway up mailbox posts by mid-morning. Seawater rushed out of Tampa Bay, leaving parts of the muddy bottom exposed, and waves crashed over the end of a wooden pier at Naples.
“It’s going to get a lot worse very quickly,” DeSantis said. “So please hunker down.”
Fueled by warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Ian grew to a Category 4 hurricane overnight with top winds of 155 mph (250 kph), on the threshold of the most dangerous Category 5 status, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The storm was expected to spend a day or more crawling across the Florida peninsula, dumping flooding rains of 12 to 18 inches (30 to 45 centimeters) across a broad area, including Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville.
Ian’s rapid strengthening prompted Fort Myers handyman Tom Hawver to abandon his plan to weather the hurricane at home and head across the state to Fort Lauderdale.
“We were going to stay and then just decided when we got up, and they said 155 mph winds,” Hawver said. “We don’t have a generator. I just don’t see the advantage of sitting there in the dark, in a hot house, watching water come in your house.”
