Hurricane Ian wreaked havoc on southwest Florida — trapping residents in flooded properties, damaging at the least one hospital, and leaving over two million with out energy earlier than it was downgraded to a tropical storm at 5 a.m. EDT on Thursday.
Ian made landfall over the Sunshine State as a class 4 storm with winds of as much as 150 miles per hour — making it one of many strongest hurricanes to ever hit the nation.
It left a path of destruction all through the Gulf Coast, flooding neighborhoods, properties and buildings with its storm surge and heavy rains.
An emergency room inside ER of HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital in Port Charlotte was inundated with water as highly effective winds tore by the ability’s roof — exposing its intensive care unit to the harmful components, in accordance with a physician on the hospital.
Water poured down onto the ICU as staffers rushed the hospital’s sickest sufferers — a few of whom have been on ventilators — to different flooring, in accordance with Dr. Birgit Bodine.
“So long as our sufferers do OK and no person finally ends up dying or having a nasty final result, that’s what issues,” Bodine advised the Related Press.
Close by, calls of individuals trapped inside their flooded homes overwhelmed native police departments.
Residents posted pleas to social media websites alongside movies of rising water gushing in the direction of their properties as Ian reworked roadways into rivers.
Right here’s all the pieces to learn about Hurricane Ian:
One lady’s North Fort Myers home was swamped by 5 toes of water, in accordance with her out-of-state daughter, Pittsburgh journalist Brittany Hailer.
“We don’t know when the water’s going to go down. We don’t understand how they’re going to go away, their vehicles are totaled,” Hailer mentioned. “Her solely method out is on a ship.”
Ian toppled bushes and powerlines inflicting two million Florida properties and companies to lose electrical energy, in accordance with the PowerOutage.us web site.
Whereas the hurricane dropped to a class 1 with winds of 90 miles per hour, its path of destruction is way from over, consultants mentioned.
Storm surges as excessive as 6 toes are anticipated to batter northeast Florida on Thursday, with a excessive chance of catastrophic flooding and harmful winds.
Ian is barreling in the direction of the Atlantic Ocean, the place it’s believed to proceed north up the coast.
No deaths have been reported within the US as of Wednesday evening.
With Publish wires
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