More than 2.6mn without power after Hurricane Ian batters Florida

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More than 2.6mn without power after Hurricane Ian batters Florida

29 September 2022 Clean energy investing 0

More than 2.6mn people in Florida were estimated to be without power on Thursday morning after Hurricane Ian ploughed into the south-west of the state, inundating the coastline and tearing through infrastructure and property.

Hurricane Ian made landfall at about 3.05pm Eastern time on Wednesday and was causing “catastrophic storm surge, winds, and flooding”, the National Hurricane Center said. Maximum sustained winds of 150mph gave it a category four storm rating, the second-strongest classification in meteorologists’ five-tier scale.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis warned 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,” he 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.

PowerOutage. US, a website tracking the power outages, showed a sharp increase in the number of customers who lost power overnight Wednesday, and by Thursday morning those enduring a blackout had risen from 1.8mn to 2.6mn.

Florida Power & Light, the state’s largest power utility, warned of “extensive damage to the electrical infrastructure” and predicted parts of its system would need to be rebuilt after Ian passed through the state.

Map of path of Hurricane Ian as it made landfall on the southwestern coast of Florida. The projected path runs from Wednesday September 28 to Friday September 30. The initial wind impact of the storm is shown by three concentric circles: light blue (>39 mph winds), green (>58 mph winds), and red (>74 mph winds)” srcset=”https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fd6c748xw2pzm8.cloudfront.net%2Fprod%2Fb6b81960-3f52-11ed-b054-b9b4b5c23604-standard.png?dpr=1&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&source=next&width=700 1x, https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/https%3A%2F%2Fd6c748xw2pzm8.cloudfront.net%2Fprod%2Fb6b81960-3f52-11ed-b054-b9b4b5c23604-standard.png?dpr=2&fit=scale-down&quality=medium&source=next&width=700 2x”></picture></figure>
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<p>The “devastating” Ian will be “a storm we talk about for many years to come”, said Ken Graham, director of the National Weather Service.</p>
<p>Storm surges reaching between 3.6 metres and 5.5 metres (12 feet and 18 feet) were expected to hit the coast from Englewood to Bonita Beach, the US National Weather Service said. The natural harbour and shallow estuary of Tampa Bay, however, was drained on Wednesday morning as the hurricane’s counterclockwise winds blew out towards the sea. </p>
<p>Collier County, in south-west Florida, imposed a mandatory overnight curfew beginning at 10pm on Wednesday night, with local officials warning residents to stay away from flood water.</p>
<p>Videos <a href=posted on social media showed destructive flooding in the town of Naples, Collier County, leaving firefighters battling to save their equipment.

US president Joe Biden said he had been in touch with DeSantis and promised the federal government would do everything it could to help Florida cope with the impact of the storm.

The US Federal Emergency Management Agency had sent 700 officials to Florida and brought 3.5mn litres of water and 3.7mn meals to nearby Alabama, as well as having generators on hand and 128,000 gallons of fuel “ready for rapid deployment”, said Deanne Criswell, the agency’s director.

Fema deployed 300 ambulances and federal medical teams to Florida and was tracking medical needs across the state’s hospitals, care facilities and dialysis centres.

Utility trucks assemble in Sumter County, Florida, in preparation for the hurricane
Utility trucks assemble in Sumter County, Florida, in preparation for the hurricane © Stephen M Dowell/Orlando Sentinel/AP

Search and rescue co-ordination teams were on hand in Miami alongside the US coastguard, officials from the Department of Defense and the Department of the Interior. DeSantis ordered the deployment of 5,000 members of the Florida National Guard, with an extra 2,000 expected from other states.

Federal officials were already dealing with the devastation caused by Hurricane Fiona in Puerto Rico, which killed more than a dozen people and left hundreds of thousands without power.

Graham of the National Weather Service said the storm would slow as it moved over land, increasing the amount of rainfall produced. Parts of the state are forecast to receive between 15in and 24in of precipitation.

He said that, while the leading cause of fatalities in strong hurricanes was flooding, the storm’s eyewall should be expected to cause a “devastating” amount of structural damage to buildings and power lines.

Global warming is changing the nature of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, causing them to be more frequent and intense due to the rise in global temperatures of at least 1.1C due to human activity since pre-industrial times.

The most recent UN climate report signed off by 270 scientists from 67 countries concluded that about 1bn people globally would be at risk from coastal hazards such as flooding by 2060, based on a “medium” scenario.

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