Hurricane Ian makes landfall in Florida with catastrophic force

An "extremely dangerous" Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida on Wednesday (September 28). The United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) said that the eye of the storm made landfall at 1905 GMT, with high winds and heavy rain pounding the coast.

The NHC said: "Hurricane Ian has made landfall as an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane near Cayo Costa, Florida."

NHC reported that Hurricane Ian made landfall in Cayo Costa as a Category 4 hurricane, with sustained winds of up to 241 km per hour.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

NHC also stated that the storm's wind speeds put it just shy of a Category 5 designation on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which is the most severe classification for storms.

ALSO READ |US: Early data shows monkeypox vaccine to be highly effective

As per the forecasters, Ian would unleash storm surges - wind - of up to 18 feet along with intense thunderstorms and possible tornadoes. Ken Graham, who is the director of the National Weather Service said, "This is a storm that we will talk about for many years to come, an historic event."

At a news conference, around the same time when the storm made landfall, Charlotte County Emergency Management director Patrick Fuller said that Punta Gorda, Florida, is beginning to feel heavy impacts from the hurricane.

ALSO READ |Twenty-three missing after migrant boat sinks off Florida due to Hurricane Ian

Fuller said, "This is an intense hurricane, we expect that to persist throughout the evening into tomorrow."

He added, "The storm surge, we are still at the very beginning of that. We will see that continue throughout the afternoon into the evening. It’s going to begin to fill up canals, overtop land, and potentially into homes. We are going to see a life-threatening storm surge."

Fuller also warned those who have not left. Fuller said that 60,000 people in the red zone are under evacuation. But also mentioned that they are not sure how many got out ahead of the storm.

Fuller warned that this is just the beginning and also mentioned that they have not received any critical calls so far.

Watch this report:

Millions without power

According to a US tracker, over a million customers lost power in the hurricane and the number is expected to rise as high winds, heavy rain and floods take their toll.

Of 11 million customers tracked in Florida, 1,040,000 were suffering outages, PowerOutages.us reported.

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.