Tracking Hurricane Ian, and weekend impacts for the Carolinas

Table Of Content

• Preliminary rainfall and wind gust data puts a fine point on Ian's power
• LATEST NEWS
• South Carolina
• The eyewall of Hurricane Ian reaches southwest Florida
• GET LOCAL BREAKING NEWS ALERTS
• It's too dangerous to be on the roads in Naples right now, city manager says
• Ian is tied for the fifth-strongest hurricane by wind speed in U.S. history

The highest percentage of damaged structures occurred on the central and northern portions of the island, where most of the structures were single-family and multi-family residences. Most of the structures that experienced 0 to 30 percent damage were classified as low-rise condominiums (three stories or less), commercial shopping centers and stores. Among the "severely damaged" and "destroyed" structures were seven mobile home subdivisions. Across Florida, there were 776,941 claims filed following the storm, from homeowners, commercial property owners and those whose businesses were disrupted or vehicles damaged, the insurance regulation agency reports. Hurricane Ian caused more than $21 billion in insured losses, based on the latest damage estimates from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.

Preliminary rainfall and wind gust data puts a fine point on Ian's power

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In Cape Coral – to the south -- sustained winds have been measured at 112 mph (that’s category 3 strength). Cities along Florida’s Southwest Coast, pounded by storm surge and 150 mile-per-hour wind gusts from Ian, can feel like sleepier cousins to the high-rise multicultural pulsations of Miami. The region skews older, whiter and more conservative than Florida’s denser Atlantic coast. Places like Cape Coral have long drawn Midwesterners hunting for an affordable slice of Florida shoreline. Hurricane Ian’s winds are continuing to lose strength as the center of the storm moves over land. It now has maximum sustained winds of 90 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said, making it a Category 1 storm.

LATEST NEWS

Hours after weakening to a tropical storm while crossing the Florida peninsula, Ian regained hurricane strength Thursday evening over the Atlantic. The National Hurricane Center predicted it would hit South Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane Friday, with winds picking up to 80 mph (129 kph) near midnight Thursday. Ian is forecast to bring hurricane-force winds to a wide swath of Florida’s west coast and tropical storm conditions to nearly the entire length of the state. Hurricane warnings were extended to parts of Florida’s east coast due to Ian’s strength. Gov. Roy Cooper is urging North Carolinians to be safe and cautious during heavy rainfall, possible flooding and power outages as Hurricane Ian bears down on the state. In an update, the National Hurricane Center says sustained winds on Sanibel have reached 71 mph (just shy of hurricane strength) and higher gusts.

South Carolina

Tampa, Fort Myers and Sarasota — all among the state's fastest-growing metropolitan areas — are within the range of predicted paths, the NHC said. Ian may bring a "life-threatening storm surge, catastrophic winds and flooding in the Florida peninsula," the hurricane center said in its 5 a.m. "We lose so many people after a storm because they get out and wander about, they drive into flooded roads, power lines might be down," he added. "I know you want to see what happened, I know you want to see if your house, your neighborhood is okay, but please stay inside until conditions allow you to safely move about."

The eyewall of Hurricane Ian reaches southwest Florida

Hillsborough County, home to Tampa, and Sarasota County each had more than 200,000 reported outages. The governor added that two people so far had been found dead, but couldn’t yet say definitively if the fatalities were linked to the storm. “She was inside the car, she was waving and just screaming for help,” Atkins said moments afterward, as he reported from the scene.

GET LOCAL BREAKING NEWS ALERTS

He saw downed trees, power lines and floodwaters moving into downtown. The remnants of Hurricane Ian brought downed trees, power lines and flooded streets as it made its way across North Carolina and South Carolina. We have had crews on the ground tracking every development of the storm. Now, the state is yet again in the path of a major hurricane, with Hurricane Ian expected to make landfall on Florida's western coast Wednesday. It is now classified as a Category 4 storm, according to the National Hurricane Center.

It's too dangerous to be on the roads in Naples right now, city manager says

“We are beginning to get a sense that our community has been, in some respects, decimated,” Roger Desjarlais, the county manager, said during an evening news briefing on Wednesday. Forecasters cautioned that the winds remain dangerous and that the storm brings other threats with it. As much as 12 to 18 inches of rain could fall across central and northeast Florida, with the possibility of 30 inches in some spots.

Tracking Hurricane Ian, and weekend impacts for the Carolinas

WCNC Charlotte will continue to monitor outages and when customers can expect power to be restored. — Power crews are working to restore power to the thousands of Carolinians without power on Saturday after Ian impacted both North Carolina and South Carolina. For the study, analysis of beach morphology was conducted by creating profile graphs to visualize elevation changes over a continuous distance. To measure structural damage, researchers use LiDAR tools to extract building footprints and building heights pre- and post-storm. Building footprints were overlaid on the post-imagery to estimate the total number of damaged buildings as well as the level of damage to each structure.

The latest forecast track has Hurricane Ian making landfall by Wednesday evening between Tampa and Fort Myers, Florida, near Sarasota, as a major hurricane, with winds of 130 mph possible. The forward progress of Ian will slow after making landfall through the day Thursday into early Friday. Tuesday, Hurricane Ian has winds of 120 mph, and is moving to the north-northeast at 10 mph, as a category three hurricane. Ian is expected to batter Florida Wednesday through Friday, and move into the Carolinas by Saturday. The National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center tweeted on Thursday morning that the storm's landfall is thought to have brought more than 17 inches of rain over West-Central Florida.

Boodheshwar says three damage assessment teams tried to go out last night to get a sense of what they would find in the morning, but the team he was with was unable to make it to the south side of the city because of the flooded streets. Jay Boodheshwar, the city manager of Naples, Fla., — just south of where Hurricane Ian made landfall yesterday — spoke to Morning Edition's Rachel Martin about what the storm's impact and aftermath look like there. "The pavement is folded up like an accordion, ripped to ribbons by a powerful storm surge," they wrote. "Nearby, a spiral staircase was deposited in the brush next to a white pickup. The storm flung a boat trailer and other debris, too." The two coastal counties most directly hit by the storm — Lee County, home to Fort Myers and Cape Coral, along with Charlotte County, its neighbor to the north — are “basically off the grid at this point,” DeSantis said.

One hotel employee, who said he wasn’t authorized to speak on the record, said people were coming from all directions looking for somewhere to stay. “There’s going be thousands of people homeless tomorrow when the sun comes up,” he said by phone. The number of customers without power has risen to about 2.2 million early Thursday, according to PowerOutage.us as Hurricane Ian makes its way to the middle of Florida. Wednesday and Thursday will feature mostly sunny to partly cloudy skies, with afternoon high temperatures around 70 degrees for the piedmont, and around 60 degrees for the mountains.

About 2.5 million people were ordered to evacuate southwest Florida before Ian hit, but by law no one could be forced to flee. The medium-sized hospital spans four floors, but patients were forced into just two because of the damage. Bodine planned to spend the night at the hospital in case people injured from the storm arrive there needing help. Kureczka said that crews prepare year-round, so they don’t have to scramble ahead of the storms. The American Red Cross is urging everyone in the region to make their storm preparations now. The organization has disaster teams and more relief supplies on the way to the region to support people impacted by Ian.

North Carolina and South Carolina are forecast to be pummeled by "life-threatening storm surge and hurricane conditions" as the storm creeps closer this afternoon, the hurricane center said. Ian is exiting Florida as a tropical storm — but as it moves back over the water, it could regain hurricane status, drawing power from the Atlantic Ocean. Forecasters are warning of potential flooding and other impacts, from Florida to North Carolina. You can follow the Florida Division of Emergency Management on Twitterand Facebook, as well as the websites and social media pages of your county government and emergency management.

When Punta Gorda was open, that was the only one that was open for a couple of weeks. So very popular, like I said, still some pockets of no connectivity for the internet. For awhile, we were publishing 5,000 or 6,000 flyers a day to distribute printed copies of information to folks who were at our pods.

There has also been wind and surge damage reported up the coast in Sarasota and as far north as St. Petersburg. The effects of a hurricane or tropical storm can be felt throughout South Carolina and right now, that’s what it’s forecast to be,” said Kim Stenson, director of South Carolina’s emergency management division. After leaving Florida as a tropical storm Thursday and entering the Atlantic Ocean north of Cape Canaveral, Ian spun up into a hurricane again with winds of 75 mph (120 kph).

At a Wednesday morning press conference, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Ian is “knocking on the door of a Category 5 storm” and urged people who have not evacuated to treat the hurricane like a tornado. In Port Charlotte, a hospital’s emergency room flooded and fierce winds ripped away part of the roof, sending water gushing into the intensive care unit. The sickest patients — some on ventilators — were crowded into the middle two floors as the staff prepared for storm victims to arrive, said Dr. Birgit Bodine of HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital. The road into Fort Myers was littered with broken trees, boat trailers and other debris. Cars were left abandoned in the road, having stalled when the storm surge flooded their engines. At 2 p.m., North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and emergency management officials will be speaking about severe weather as the remnants of Hurricane Ian move through.