Hurricane Ian Hits Southwest Florida, Engulfing Homes in Water

Hurricane Ian made landfall in southwest Florida early Wednesday afternoon. The Category 4 storm sustained wind speeds up to 155 miles per hour before reaching land, just barely beneath the threshold for Category 5, which the continental United States has seen only five times before. Ian has already knocked out power for over a million residents.

The storm shifted east shortly before hitting Florida, redirecting towards the coastal communities of Sarasota and Fort Myers. Video footage from the hurricane shows floodwaters as high as six feet, engulfing cars and homes. The state is expected to suffer tens of billions of dollars in damages from the storm. Before reaching Florida, the hurricane devastated Cuba, which lost power across the entire island on Tuesday.

Ahead of the storm, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared a State of Emergency and ordered two million people to evacuate. “This is going to be a nasty nasty day, two days,” DeSantis said.

Ongoing coverage of the storm dominated the front pages of U.S. and some international outlets throughout the evening. The storm is being widely reported as one of the worst in United States history. Reuters (Center bias) included a quote from a climate scientist partially attributing the strength of Hurricane Ian to climate change, stating that a warming planet makes hurricanes “wetter, windier and more intense,” as well as slower-moving.