Hurricane Ian made landfall in southwestern Florida on Wednesday, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Hurricane Ian had already brought a devastating storm surge over Florida. The storm’s strength is just shy of Category 5, the most dangerous status.
According to the NHC, Ian had grown to an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane overnight, with top winds of 155 mph.
Dozens of shelters were set up after authorities had issued mandatory evacuation orders for 2.5 million people across Florida.
However, by Wednesday, it was already too late to flee as conditions were rapidly deteriorating. Some quarter million households were already without power.
All commercial flights stopped operating in Tampa and Orlando’s airports.
Shortly before Ian made landfall, a boat carrying migrants sank, leaving 23 people missing and four survivors.
Walter Slosar, Miami’s chief patrol agent, said US authorities responded to a “migrant landing in Stock Island, Florida.”
“Four Cuban migrants swam to shore after their vessel sank due to inclement weather,” Slosar wrote on Twitter.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said this was all a “drop in the bucket” compared to what was expected over the next 48 hours.
“This is going to be a nasty nasty day, two days,” DeSantis said, urging residents in the storm’s path to seek shelter.
Warning of a looming trail of destruction, National Weather Service director Ken Graham said Ian would be “a storm we talk about for many years to come… It’s a historic event.”
DeSantis said thousands of personnel were assigned to respond to the storm with 250 aircraft, 300 boats and 1,600 high-water vehicles.
Hurricane Ian had battered Cuba as a Category 3 storm just less than 24 hours before nearing Florida. Scientists have long sounded the alarm over how climate change hikes the intensity of extreme weather events, like surging from category to a higher one in a 24-hour period. (DW)