A photo shows a view from Fort Myers, Florida, on Wednesday amid Hurricane Ian.
Hurricane Ian battered Florida on Wednesday, making landfall as a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds near 150 mph and what the National Hurricane Center called a “
catastrophic” tidal surge of 12 to 18 feet.
A
s Ian moved slowly north at 9 mph, the storm inundated parts of the state with heavy rain and left
upward of 800,000 people in southwest Florida without power.
Florida Power & Light
warned that “widespread, extended outages” are likely and
may be prolonged if Ian forces the state utility to rebuild parts of its system. The company provides power to more than 12 million people.
Nick Underwood, a researcher who was aboard a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration flight into Ian on Wednesday morning, tweeted that it was “the roughest flight of my career so far.”
“There was coffee everywhere,” he added, along with a video of the flight. “I have never felt such lateral motion.”
Underwood shared a photo from Ian’s eye as well, illuminated
entirely by lightning.
Also on Wednesday, the US Border Patrol rescued seven Cuban migrants
whose vessel sank during the storm as it traveled near Stock Island, located to the south of Florida’s mainland. The agency began a search and rescue operation for 20 additional missing individuals.
See below for scenes from the storm:
A man livestreams as gusts from Hurricane Ian hit Punta Gorda on Wednesday.
Gusts from Hurricane Ian hit Punta Gorda on Wednesday.
Firefighters look out at a firetruck that stands in water amid the storm surge from Hurricane Ian on Wednesday in Naples.
A tree is uprooted by strong winds as Hurricane Ian churns to the south in Sarasota.
Sailboats anchored in Roberts Bay are blown around by 50 mph winds in Venice as Hurricane Ian approaches the western coast of Florida on Wednesday.
A local resident walks in the rain and wind at a bay in St. Petersburg as Hurricane Ian approaches Wednesday.
A damaged sign sits on the side of state road I-275 as Hurricane Ian approaches Wednesday in St. Petersburg.
Residents leave with their belongings after an apparent tornado spawned from Hurricane Ian in Delray Beach on Wednesday.
David Dellinger of the National Weather Service surveys the damage from the tornado spawned from Hurricane Ian in Delray Beach on Wednesday.
Utility trucks are staged near the Orange County Convention Center ahead of Hurricane Ian on Wednesday in Orlando.
Members of a softball team play in Cocoa Beach on Wednesday as the eastern coast of central Florida braces for Hurricane Ian.
Jacob Woods, a meteorology student at the Mississippi State University, measures wind gusts as Hurricane Ian approaches Wednesday in Sarasota.
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