Hurricane Ian has caused power outages and flooding in the US state of Florida. The hurricane, classified as "extremely dangerous", reached the southwest coast of Florida near Cayo Costa on Wednesday, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). In the nearby city of Fort Myers, entire neighborhoods were under water, and more than two million households lost power.
Images from the television station MSNBC also showed completely flooded streets in the city of Naples, in which cars were drifting. The city of Punta Gorda, further north, was hit by heavy rains, according to journalists from the local AFP news agency. In the city center, palm branches were torn away by the wind.
According to the website poweroutage.us, more than two million of Florida's eleven million electricity customers sat in the dark in the evening. The southwest of the state was hardest hit.
"Ian" had reached Florida on Wednesday afternoon shortly after 3 p.m. as a hurricane with the second highest hurricane warning level 4. Over land, it quickly weakened and by late evening was only considered a Level 1 hurricane. However, the NHC continued to warn of storm surges, strong winds, rain and flooding.
Hurricane "Ian" had already caused severe devastation in Cuba on Tuesday and then moved on to Florida. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis had declared a state of emergency for all 67 counties as a precaution and asked the population to create emergency supplies. Endangered areas were evacuated.
"It's going to be very, very bad," DeSantis warned. US President Joe Biden called on people to follow all instructions from the authorities. "The danger is real." National Weather Service chief Ken Graham called Ian a storm "that will be talked about for years to come." Up to 76 centimeters of rain were expected in parts of the so-called Sunshine State. "This is a life-threatening situation," the NHC warned.
A boat carrying dozens of migrants sank off the coast of Florida amid the storm. The rescue workers were able to save three people and searched for 20 missing people. The rescue operation was triggered after four Cubans arrived by boat on Stock Island in the Florida Keys. Their boat had sunk due to bad weather, US border guard Walter Slosar said on Twitter.
After Florida, southern states like Georgia and South Carolina geared up for "Ian." The hurricane killed at least two people in Cuba. There was a temporary power outage across the entire Caribbean island.
