Hurricane Ian is downgraded to Category 3 leaving destruction in its wake

Hurricane Ian is downgraded to Category 3.
It floods streets and leaves more than a million people without electricity.
Southwest Florida is reeling from the destruction.

Hurricane Ian, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the United States, hit southwest Florida on Wednesday, flooding streets and buildings, leaving more than one million people without power. It also threatened to generate catastrophic damage inland, according to the AP. This afternoon The New York Post reported that it had been downgraded to Category 3.

A coastal police station reported that it was receiving many calls from people trapped in houses. The center of the hurricane entered near Cayo Costa, a barrier island west of densely populated Fort Myers. Mark Pritchett left his home in the city of Venice around the same time the hurricane made landfall, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) to the south. He commented that it had been “terrifying”.

A POWERFUL STORM

«I literally couldn’t stand up in the wind,» Pritchett wrote in a text message. “The rain falls like needles. My street is a river. Fallen branches and trees. And the worst is yet to come.» About 2.5 million people in Southwest Florida were ordered to evacuate before Ian arrived, but by law no one could be forced to leave their home.

The Category 4 hurricane battered the coast with winds of 150 miles (241 kilometers) per hour and pushed up a storm surge that had built up during its slow advance over the Gulf of Mexico. More than 1.1 million Florida homes and businesses were without power. Previously the storm hit Cuba, where it left two dead and disabled the island’s power grid.

BUILDINGS ARE FLOODED

Anchors for Fort Myers’ WINK tv had to leave their regular work desk and continue coverage from another location in their newsroom because water was entering their building, located near the Caloosahatchee River. Although it is forecast to weaken as it moves inland at about 9 mph (14 km/h), Ian’s hurricane-force winds would likely be felt as far as central Florida.

Hours after landfall, its maximum sustained winds had dropped to 130 mph (210 km/h). In any case, the arrival of storm surges of up to 6 feet (2 meters) in height was expected in northeast Florida and, in the afternoon, it was reported that it had been downgraded from Category 4 to 3. Filed Under: Hurricane Ian

WHAT DID PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN ASK FOR?

President Joe Biden warned oil and gas companies Wednesday not to raise consumer prices because of Hurricane Ian’s landfall on Florida’s southwest coast. “No, I repeat, do not use this as an excuse to raise gas prices or rip off the American people,” the president declared at the start of a conference on hunger in the United States, just hours before Ian made landfall as a Category 4.

He said the hurricane «does not provide an excuse for price gouging at gas stations,» and if that happens, he will ask federal authorities to determine «if price gouging is occurring». “The United States is watching. The industry should do the right thing,” he added. Filed Under: Hurricane Ian