Hurricane Ian made landfall on Florida's west coast Wednesday afternoon as a powerful Category 4 storm.
Hurricane Ian made landfall Wednesday in southwest Florida as one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the U.S., swamping city streets with water and smashing trees along the coast.The hurricane's center struck Wednesday afternoon near Cayo Costa, a protected barrier island just west of heavily populated Fort Myers. The massive storm was expected to trigger flooding across a wide area of Florida as it crawls northeastward across the peninsula.
The Category 4 storm slammed the coast with 150 mph winds and pushed a wall of storm surge accumulated during its slow march over the Gulf of Mexico.About 2.5 million people were ordered to evacuate southwest Florida before the storm hit. Though expected to weaken as it marched inland at about 9 mph , Ian's hurricane force winds were likely to be felt well into central Florida.
Off the coast on Sanibel Island, just south of where Ian made landfall, traffic cameras hours earlier showed swirling water that flooded streets and was halfway up mailbox posts. Seawater rushed out of Tampa Bay as the storm approached, leaving parts of the muddy bottom exposed, and waves crashed over the end of a wooden pier at Naples.
The governor said the state has 30,000 linemen, urban search and rescue teams, and 7,000 National Guard troops from Florida and elsewhere ready to help once the weather clears. "It is kind of scary, makes you a bit anxious," Lewis said. "After the last year of not having any, now you go to a Category 4 or 5. We are more used to the 2s and 3s."
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