Hurricane "Ian" swept the Gulf coast of the US state of Florida on Wednesday afternoon (EDT), hitting it with strong storms and heavy rain;
This caused a power outage to a million homes in the state.
The "extremely dangerous" hurricane made landfall in western Florida, with strong winds of 240 kilometers per hour and heavy rain.
The US National Hurricane Center reported that "Ian" intensified and turned into a category four hurricane, and the Miami-based center warned that Ian was a "very dangerous hurricane", and had already caused "catastrophic" floods.
Hurricane Ian hits Florida and strengthens to Category 4 (Reuters)
The coastal region of Florida is most at risk of hurricane landing in the United States;
It has miles of sandy beaches and dozens of hotels within resorts.
I've been capturing video from this webcam in Fort Myers all day and I've put it into a Timelapse.
Check out the storm surge rushing in!
Crazy.
#Ian #flwx pic.twitter.com/lj7a1wThga
— Brennan Prill (@WxBrenn) September 28, 2022
Got this from a friend in #Naples – just so sad.
@ActionNewsJax #Ian pic.twitter.com/HtC0CtG228
— Jason Brewer (@JBrewerBoston25) September 28, 2022
State Governor Ron DeSantis warned last Tuesday that evacuation would become more difficult as the rising winds would soon force authorities to close highway bridges.
He added that nearly 60 school districts in Florida had canceled classes because of the hurricane, and airlines had reported canceling more than 2,000 flights due to the hurricane.
Ian cut off electricity to all of Cuba and destroyed some of the country's most important tobacco plantations when it hit the island's western tip as a major hurricane last Tuesday.