Floridians are returning to their homes but finding only destruction from Hurricane Ian.
As of 8 a.m. Friday, Ian was about 105 miles south-southeast of Charleston, and was moving north at 9 mph with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, the hurricane center said.Heavy rains and tropical storm conditions had already reached the coasts of Georgia and the Carolinas by Friday morning, where life-threatening storm surge and hurricane conditions were expected to develop. Rainfall of up to 8 inches threatened flooding from South Carolina to Virginia, the National Weather Service reported.
Some areas had already received between 2 and 3 inches of rain by 8 a.m., and “quite a bit of flooding” had begun inundating downtown Charleston as heavy rain fell amid rising tide levels, said Steven Taylor, a lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Charleston. Ian’s center is expected to travel northeast of Charleston by Friday afternoon, and forecasters anticipate weakening of the storm as it moves into North Carolina.Located about 26 miles south of Charleston, the island could see up to 1.5 inches of rain throughout Friday until Ian shifts to the north, said NWS Charleston meteorologist Douglas Berry. Gusts were ranging between 35 and 45 mph Friday morning, but he said the risk of flooding would be worse in Charleston and right along the coast.
“I think mine is going to be a total loss,” Joy McCormack said as she stood across the road from a stretch of mobile homes, townhouses and condos that were knee-deep in flood waters. “It’s the only house I have and if it’s gone…” She trailed off.
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