Hurricane Ian is growing in strength and could unleash life-threatening floods and gales.
The first gusts of wind and flooding in Cuba heralded the arrival of Hurricane Ian, with its destructive nature initially hitting the Caribbean island on Monday evening. It continued to grow in strength and hit the west coast of Florida on Wednesday afternoon local time, with large areas around Tampa and Fort Lauderdale expected to be hit the hardest.
UPDATE Wednesday: Ian made landfall as category 4 storm; winds were around 150 mph. More than 2 million persons were without power in Florida.
UPDATE Thursday: The storm weakend to category 1 but heavy rain was expected. Regions of Florida could get up to 30 inches of rain, especially in northeastern and central parts of the state.
Residents of the US state have already stocked up on supplies and equipped their homes, with governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, declaring a state of emergency and calling up the National Guard. Tourists have already been told to leave the affected areas, with the region around Tampa likely to be hit by a storm which could be the strongest the region has seen for a hundred years – the last time there was a hurricane was in 1921, which caused storm surges, along with major damage to homes and businesses.
Hurricane Ian also had an impact on NASA with the planned launch of the Artemis 1 rocket postponed; the rocket and the infrastructure for the launch has already been moved to safety.
