More than 1.8mn people in Florida are estimated to be without power after Hurricane Ian ploughed into the south-west of the state on Wednesday, inundating the coastline and tearing through infrastructure and property, according to PowerOutage.US, a website tracking power cuts across the country.
Hurricane Ian made landfall at about 3.05pm Eastern time and was causing “catastrophic storm surge, winds, and flooding”, the National Hurricane Center said. With maximum sustained winds of 150mph, it was rated a category four storm, the second-strongest classification in meteorologists’ five-tier scale.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis warned that the storm would continue to move across the state on Thursday, causing “major, major impacts”.
“This storm is doing a number on the state of Florida,” DeSantis said.
Millions of Florida residents had been under evacuation orders, although on Wednesday morning, DeSantis said it was too late to leave Collier, Lee, Sarasota and Charlotte counties, where the storm was approaching.
Florida Power & Light, the state’s largest power utility, warned of “extensive damage to the electrical infrastructure” and predicted that parts of its system would need to be rebuilt after Ian passed through the state.
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