Waning Hurricane Ian Creeps Across Florida

A weakened but still formidable Hurricane Ian ‘chugged’ across Florida toward the Atlantic seaboard on Thursday after thrashing the state’s Gulf Coast with fierce winds, torrential downpours and raging surf that flooded oceanside communities.

Ian “blasted ashore” with catastrophic force on Wednesday afternoon as a Category 4 hurricane, packing maximum sustained winds of 150 miles per hour (241 kph), and quickly plunged the region’s flat, low-lying landscape into a ‘scene of devastation.’

Ian’s winds, making it “one of the most intense storms to strike the U.S. mainland” in recent years, diminished significantly after nightfall. Within eight hours of its arrival, Ian was downgraded to Category one on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, with top sustained winds of 90 mph (150 kmh), the National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported.

However, the sprawling, “slow-moving hurricane continued to unleash drenching rains as it crept farther inland,” threatening to trigger extensive additional flooding.

Reuters /Shakirat Sadiq