Hurricane Ian has weakened on its way through the US state of Florida.

With wind speeds of up to 100 kilometers per hour, it is now considered a tropical storm, the hurricane center announced early Thursday morning (local time).

A category four hurricane "Ian" hit the west coast of Florida on Wednesday afternoon, bringing violent winds, rain and storm surges.

A few hours later he had already been downgraded to the lowest strength of one out of five.

Despite weakening, a wide strip of land was exposed to severe storms along its path.

The storm was around 70 kilometers southeast of Orlando early Thursday morning.

Television pictures showed how rain was lashing the streets, only the roofs of cars were sticking out of the floodwaters and debris was flying through the air.

"Ian" is probably one of the five most severe hurricanes in Florida, said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The center of "Ian" is scheduled to move over the east coast of Florida on Thursday and then towards the coast of the state of South Carolina on Friday.

"Ian" made landfall in Cuba on Tuesday as a category three of five hurricane.

In the state with a good eleven million inhabitants, the power went out at times across the country.