Hurricane Ian Ravages Southwestern Florida, Eastern Seaboard

Catastrophic Hurricane Ian made landfall near Cayo Costa, Florida at approximately 3:05 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph. According to the National Weather Service, the storm nearly breached Category 5 status as it approached the coast, with winds only 2 miles per hour away from the designation. Residents throughout the state were urged to evacuate Monday morning by local Florida emergency officials with devastating storm surge up to 20 feet, life-threatening wind gusts, and flooding rainfall.

Ian is the first major hurricane to hit the area in over one hundred years. In October 1921, the Tampa/Tarpon Springs Hurricane caused sustained winds of over 75 mph with a surge of over 10 feet. Historically speaking, Ian’s damages are record-breaking and potentially deadly. “The pressure drop is immense. You can feel it,” Mike Boylan, Floridian storm chaser and owner of spaghettimodels.com, said on Wednesday as Ian made landfall. The hurricane recorded a pressure of 937 Mb, which indicated the intense ferocity of the storm.

Major Hurricane Ian on radar imagery as it made landfall near Cayo Costa, Florida on Wednesday afternoon. Credit: National Hurricane Center.

On Thursday morning, over 2.5 million Florida residents lost power due to severe wind gusts. In Charlotte and Lee Counties, where the strongest damages were felt, cell towers collapsed and many are still left without basic forms of communication. Fort Myers Beach experienced some of the most unprecedented damage, where the pier and almost all buildings were completely destroyed. Ron DeSantis issued a statement Thursday morning regarding the destruction: “This is going to require years of effort, to be able to rebuild, to come back.” President Biden also declared the event a major disaster due to the catastrophic effects of the storm.

The path of Ian wasn’t limited to the Gulf side of Florida, either. Cities like Orlando and Jacksonville experienced record-breaking levels of rainfall that caused historically devastating flooding of rivers and lakes, according to the National Weather Service office in Jacksonville. Between 15 and 25 inches of rain fell in these areas, where homes and businesses remain inaccessible. Evacuations were also prompted for residents stranded in flash flooding. These effects are expected to remain for a prolonged period of over two weeks due to the massive amount of rainfall.

Neighborhood in Florida entirely underwater due to Ian’s devastating rainfall and storm surge on Thursday morning. Credit: The Weather Channel

As Ian moved up the Atlantic seaboard, cities like Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina were also severely impacted. The storm strengthened back into a Category 1 hurricane on Thursday evening as it moved over warm open waters in the Atlantic. Ian made its second U.S. landfall Friday afternoon just miles north of Charleston’s city limits, where a hurricane warning was issued on Thursday morning. Storm surge advisories were also issued by the National Weather Service from the coastal empire in Georgia to the Outer Banks in North Carolina with inundation up to 7 feet above sea level. Tropical storm conditions occurred all the way up to the oceanfront in Virginia Beach, Virginia by Saturday evening. Governor McMaster of South Carolina issued a state of emergency for the Palmetto State on Wednesday, followed by North Carolina’s Governor Cooper.

The lasting effects of Ian were also felt here in Frostburg, too. A cold and rainy weekend can be attributed to the remnants of Ian and throughout the mid-Atlantic. As the low-pressure system grew in size, residents in Virginia and Maryland received anywhere between 2 and 10 inches of rain. Spotty power outages were also reported with wind gusts reaching 55 mph from the tropical depression.

As Florida looks ahead to rebuilding its damaged infrastructure, you can help by visiting https://www.volunteerflorida.org/donatefdf/ to donate to the Florida Disaster Fund. Anything helps in this time of crisis for residents of Florida who have been left with nothing in the path of Ian’s catastrophic destruction.