“We’ve never seen a storm surge of this magnitude,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said. The state is hit by floods that only occur “every 500 years”. Some areas, like the city of Fort Myers on Florida’s southwest coast, were “really flooded, really devastated by this storm.” So far, there is only a first overview of the extent of the damage.
Entire neighborhoods in the city of Naples were flooded. TV pictures from there showed completely flooded streets with cars drifting. In Fort Myers, too, several districts resembled lake districts. According to the website poweroutage.us, more than 2.5 million homes and businesses were without power.
Nothing works anymore – vehicles of the fire station in Naples
Very strong winds
According to initial information, “Ian”, which hit land on Wednesday as a hurricane of the second highest category 4 hurricane with wind speeds of 240 kilometers per hour, probably caused at least two deaths. However, DeSantis said it still has to be determined whether the two people died as a result of the hurricane.
A refugee boat also sank off the coast of Florida on Wednesday, and according to the US Coast Guard, 20 people were missing. Three people were rescued from the water, four Cubans managed to swim ashore. The search for the missing continued on Thursday, the Coast Guard said.
Torn palm fronds on a street in Fort Myers
The first images from the TV station MSNBC and videos on social media already showed severe, sometimes meter-high flooding in southwest Florida, in the area of the cities of Fort Myers Beach, Cape Coral and Naples. About 1.6 million homes in Florida are without power, according to the website poweroutage.us.
In the region there are kilometers of sandy beaches, numerous holiday hotels and mobile home parks, which are popular with retirees and holidaymakers alike. According to meteorologists, the hurricane only moved northeast across the country at a speed of around 13 kilometers per hour.
“Ian” had reached Florida shortly after 3 p.m. local time on Wednesday afternoon. As a result, it weakened significantly and was finally classified as a tropical storm. The US hurricane center NHC continued to warn of “life-threatening, catastrophic” storm surges, strong winds and rain.
After Florida, the US southern states of Georgia and South Carolina were preparing for “Ian”. At least two people were killed in the hurricane in Cuba. The storm caused a nationwide power outage in the Caribbean country on Tuesday. By Wednesday, power was restored in parts of the capital Havana and several provinces. However, the hardest-hit regions in the west of the country remained in the dark.
Another quick selfie – whipped waves crashing on the quay wall in Key West
Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis had previously prepared the population in his state for serious damage from “Ian”. “This is a big, strong storm,” DeSantis said Wednesday morning in the Florida capital, Tallahassee. The Republican politician predicted that the next day or two would be “very ugly”. As a precaution, 2.5 million people had been asked to leave their houses and apartments in the past few days. But by no means all residents have complied.
kle/se/mak (ap, rtr, dpa, afp)
