Coastal regions of southwestern Florida were mostly plunged into darkness early Thursday after the devastating hurricane Ianof rare intensity, which caused catastrophic floods and widespread power cuts.
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Slightly away from the hurricane’s path, near the Keys archipelago, poor conditions caused a boat carrying migrants to capsize, and the Coast Guard was still searching for 20 people, with three rescued and four others managed to swim to shore.
Carrying winds of up to 240 km/h, Ian made landfall along the coast of Cayo Costa, in the southwest of the state, at 3 p.m. local time (1900 GMT), according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).
The hurricane, described as “extremely dangerous”, caused “catastrophic” flooding, the center said.
Previously classified in category 3, out of the 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, Ian was downgraded to category 1, still having winds at 120 km / h and causing “potentially fatal” floods, announced the NHC around 06:00 GMT.
Darkness
More than 2 million homes were without electricity Thursday morning in Florida, out of a total of 11 million, mainly around the path of the hurricane, according to the specialized site PowerOutage.
Several counties near where Ian made landfall were almost entirely without power, according to the site.
Ian is expected to affect not only several million people in Florida, but also in the states of Georgia and South Carolina.
The town of Punta Gorda thus plunged into darkness. In the night, only a few buildings equipped with generators remained illuminated, the only sounds around being the roar of the wind and the pouring rain.
A few hours earlier, the city had experienced a brief respite as it found itself in the eye of the hurricane. But the squalls and the rain came back with even more force, toppling road signs and washing away pieces of roofs and tree branches.
In Naples, southwest Florida, images from MSNBC showed completely flooded streets and cars floating in the current.
In Fort Myers, a city of more than 80,000 people, flooding was so severe that some neighborhoods looked like lakes.
The flood could sometimes exceed 3 meters, announced Wednesday evening the governor of the State, Ron DeSantis.
The weather phenomenon should then move inland during the day, and emerge over the western Atlantic by Thursday evening, according to the NHC.
About 2.5 million people had received mandatory evacuation orders in a dozen coastal Florida counties, and recommended voluntary evacuations in other counties.
“Very dangerous”
Governor Ron DeSantis said Wednesday evening that it would probably be “one of the five strongest hurricanes to ever hit Florida”.
“This is a storm that will be talked about for many years to come,” NWS Director Ken Graham said at a press conference.
Fema (the federal disaster relief agency) director Deanne Criswell said Ian would continue to be a “very dangerous” storm for “the days to come”.
Some 3,200 National Guard members have been called to Florida, according to the Pentagon, and another 1,800 are on the way.
Intensification
the hurricane Ian had previously struck Cuba on Tuesday, killing two people and plunging the island into darkness. On Wednesday, power was restored for some residents of Havana and 11 other provinces, but not in the three most affected in the west of the country.
As the surface of the oceans warms, the frequency of the most intense hurricanes, with stronger winds and greater precipitation, increases, but not the total number of hurricanes.
According to Gary Lackmann, professor of atmospheric sciences at North Carolina State University, in the United States, several studies have demonstrated a “possible link” between climate change, and a phenomenon known as “intensification rapid” – when a relatively weak tropical storm strengthens into a Category 3 or greater hurricane within 24 hours, as was the case with Ian.
“A consensus remains that there will be fewer storms in the future, but that the biggest ones will be more intense,” the scientist told AFP.