Hurricane Ian, considered “extremely dangerous”, made landfall this Wednesday afternoon in Florida (United States), according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), after having already caused “catastrophic” flooding.
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At sea, the poor conditions caused the shipwreck of a boat that was transporting migrants.
The coast guard is looking for 20 missing people, while three others were rescued and another four managed to swim to shore, authorities reported.
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Across the state, Ian has left more than a million homes without electricity, according to the specialized site Power-Outage, which tracks power outages in the United States.
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The storm, which has already devastated western Cuba in recent days, is expected to move inland from Florida and emerge over the western Atlantic tonightaccording to the NHC.
The closer you get, obviously the anxiety with the unknown increases
The streets of Punta Gorda, in the south of the state, where some pedestrians were still walking at noon on Wednesday, suddenly emptied in the afternoon, while the sky turned gray and the showers intensified, AFP journalists confirmed.
(Also read: Hurricane Ian: the areas of Florida that are most threatened)
Strong winds uprooted the branches of many palm trees in the center, shaking even power poles, when the cyclone was still about 40 kilometers from the city.
“The closer you get, obviously the anxiety with the unknown increases,” observed Chelsea Thompson, 30, who helped her parents secure their home in an evacuation zone southwest of Tampa.
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In Naples, Southwest Florida, images from the MSNBC channel showed completely flooded streets and cars floating in the current.
This is a storm that will be talked about for many years
Storm surges could reach more than five meters along the coasts, according to the NHC, while 30 to 45 centimeters of precipitation is expected in central and northeast Florida, and up to 60 centimeters elsewhere.
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“This is a storm that will be talked about for many years,” National Weather Service (NWS) Director Ken Graham told a news conference.
In the morning, the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, warned that Ian “is a very powerful hurricane that will have far-reaching consequences”.
Of the 67 Florida counties, all of them declared an emergency, while 18 issued mandatory evacuation orders before Ian’s arrival, according to the Department of Emergency Management (Fema), the federal agency in charge of managing natural disasters.
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Fema director Deanne Criswell added that Ian would remain a “very dangerous” storm for “days to come.”
The authorities are preparing “for the historic and catastrophic effects that we are already beginning to see,” he stressed before Ian made landfall.
Meanwhile, the Tampa airport suspended operations Tuesday afternoon, prior to Ian’s arrival. For its part, the Orlando tourist airport, where the theme and amusement parks are located, will remain closed until today.
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Orlando alone has seen 300 flight cancellations, the most of the total of 2,000 canceled flights in all of Florida, FlightAware.com reported.
In the economic field, according to a press release from the Bloomberg agency, damage and economic loss in the area could range between US$60 billion and US$70 billion if the current forecast holds.
These estimates cited by the outlet are from Chuck Watson, a disaster modeler for the firm Enki Research. That would make Ian the sixth costliest hurricane in the United States, according to official data.
(Of interest: Thousands of flights canceled and airports closed in Florida due to Hurricane Ian)
Experts point out that as the surface of the oceans warms, the frequency of more intense hurricanes, with stronger winds and more precipitation, increases.
According to Gary Lackmann, professor of Atmospheric Sciences at North Carolina State University, in the United States, several studies have shown a “possible link” between climate change and a phenomenon known as “rapid intensification”, when a relatively weak tropical storm strengthens.
(Also read: In photos: the destruction left by Hurricane Ian as it passed through the US)
Finally, while Florida was experiencing the onslaught of Ian, in Cuba, electricity gradually returned on Wednesday after 18 hours of the total blackout caused by the hurricane, which hit the island killing two people and causing significant damage in the west. “It’s here!” shouted residents of Old Havana, who ran to check their freezers and the state of the food they store.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*WITH INFORMATION FROM AFP AND EFE
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