Hurricane Ian intensifies
November 1, 2022
As the East coast of America enters hurricane season, Hurricane Ian is the first to make landfall. Ian began in Cuba containing high winds and torrential rain, causing a serious amount of damage, the storm hit western Cuba as a “major hurricane” and is intensifying as time goes on. The storm made an impact at appoximentley 4:30am Sept. 27 and 50,000 people were said to have been evacuated, reaching wind speeds as high as 125 miles per hour and said to have had 14 feet of storm surge in Cuba. As the storm moves on it is told to reach a Category 4 hurricane when it strikes the Gulf of Mexico. Winds hit 140 miles per hour prior to making impact again.
CNN states life threatening storm surge, flash flooding and mudslides are all bound to happen.
Hurricane Ian hit Florida extremely hard. The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis issued prelandfall state of emergency. DeSantis has also issued the Natoinal Gaurd to prepare for landfall. The hurricane warning for Florida was in place from Bonita Beach north all the way to Tampa Bay and the Anclote river. The Gaurdian newspaper explains how this was the first direct hit for Tampa and St. Petersburg in Florida since 1921. In Tampa, thousands of people were lined up waiting to receive bags of sand and empty shelves for bottles of water. The Florida governor suggested that almost 2.5 million people were under evacuation orders. The results of Hurricane Ian left at least 109 people dead. Winds hit 140 miles per hour in Cape Cod, Florida. 100 miles per hour winds lasted for around 30 minutes at 4 pm, Sept. 28. The large amount of rainfall left Florida with major flooding. Orlando took a 24 hour rainfall record. There are currently over 570,000 Florida residents without power. Here in North Carolina, there are around 450,000 who lost power due to this storm. As well as hitting Florida, Ian destroyed South Carolina, hitting 20 miles to the south of Georgetown as a category 1.