Hurricane Ian, which gained the extremely dangerous Category 4 status, began lashing southwest Florida on Wednesday morning, with the top winds attaining the speed of 155 mph, just shy of the ‘most dangerous’ Category 5 status.
According to reports, catastrophic winds and rain lashed the state’s heavily populated Gulf Coast, with the Naples to Sarasota region at “highest risk” of a devastating storm surge.
“Conditions rapidly deteriorating along the southwest Florida coast,” the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Wednesday morning.
It warned that the hurricane could push as much as 12 feet of ocean water ashore in Florida, and urged people to evacuate the danger zone.
Earlier, US Air Force’s hurricane ‘hunters’ said that Ian intensified over Gulf of Mexico’s warm waters after pummeling Cuba on Tuesday and bringing down the country’s electricity grid.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis urged the people living along the coast to immediately rush to safety and stay there.
“This is going to be a nasty, nasty day [or] two days,” DeSantis said, reports Los Angeles Times newspaper.
“Do what you need to do to stay safe. If you are where that storm is approaching, you’re already in hazardous conditions. It’s going to get a lot worse very quickly. So please hunker down,” he said.
Meanwhile, some parts of southern Florida have been feeling the storm’s first effects, with tropical storm-force winds and at least two tornadoes reported in Broward County, including at North Perry Airport, where planes and hangers were damaged.
While Key West witnessed major flooding due to storm surge, along with power outages.
Hurricane Ian with the top speed of 39 mph (63 kph) first reached Florida at 3 am (local times), and the first hurricane-force winds were recorded at 6 am.
According to the hurricane centre in Miami, Hurricane Ian went through a natural cycle when it lost its old eye and formed a new eye, which means that the storm got stronger and larger hours before it was set to make landfall, making it even more of a menace.
Ian went from 120 mph (193 kph) to 155 mph (250 kph) in just three hours, the second round of rapid intensification in the storm’s life cycle.
(With inputs from agencies)
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