Zürcher Nachrichten - Hurricane Ian pounds Florida, leaves millions in dark

EUR -
AED 4.02547
AFN 78.958383
ALL 99.102869
AMD 431.181955
ANG 1.961978
AOA 1003.890567
ARS 1184.765046
AUD 1.813586
AWG 1.97271
AZN 1.867466
BAM 1.955265
BBD 2.22659
BDT 133.983319
BGN 1.957778
BHD 0.412787
BIF 3277.602688
BMD 1.09595
BND 1.474296
BOB 7.619914
BRL 6.405394
BSD 1.102698
BTN 94.079244
BWP 15.358795
BYN 3.608812
BYR 21480.619234
BZD 2.215094
CAD 1.559263
CDF 3148.664634
CHF 0.944431
CLF 0.02729
CLP 1047.223301
CNY 7.980215
CNH 7.994999
COP 4582.945323
CRC 557.847278
CUC 1.09595
CUP 29.042674
CVE 110.234821
CZK 25.256829
DJF 196.376238
DKK 7.461451
DOP 69.640934
DZD 146.03502
EGP 55.406831
ERN 16.439249
ETB 145.347308
FJD 2.537019
FKP 0.847795
GBP 0.850992
GEL 3.01429
GGP 0.847795
GHS 16.970527
GIP 0.847795
GMD 78.997119
GNF 9480.074229
GTQ 8.45127
GYD 228.536272
HKD 8.520633
HNL 28.038338
HRK 7.531044
HTG 143.530764
HUF 404.54591
IDR 18346.949665
ILS 4.100568
IMP 0.847795
INR 93.650132
IQD 1430.891791
IRR 46360.405806
ISK 144.204462
JEP 0.847795
JMD 172.42419
JOD 0.777072
JPY 161.061946
KES 141.527433
KGS 95.002298
KHR 4365.330633
KMF 489.529208
KPW 986.361205
KRW 1599.015607
KWD 0.337157
KYD 0.910826
KZT 556.162432
LAK 23685.841231
LBP 98372.711411
LKR 324.07413
LRD 218.985421
LSL 20.902803
LTL 3.236056
LVL 0.66293
LYD 5.289988
MAD 10.429326
MDL 19.551233
MGA 5069.578931
MKD 61.05679
MMK 2300.919896
MNT 3846.361639
MOP 8.775473
MRU 43.593447
MUR 49.000806
MVR 16.923331
MWK 1897.317993
MXN 22.386696
MYR 4.861215
MZN 70.003894
NAD 20.902803
NGN 1681.066767
NIO 40.290501
NOK 11.790932
NPR 149.910449
NZD 1.95777
OMR 0.421946
PAB 1.09595
PEN 4.037053
PGK 4.46999
PHP 62.764717
PKR 306.904853
PLN 4.245513
PYG 8757.469729
QAR 3.989667
RON 4.952931
RSD 116.586887
RUB 93.840941
RWF 1555.449869
SAR 4.110221
SBD 9.312612
SCR 15.97682
SDG 658.021292
SEK 10.947921
SGD 1.470849
SHP 0.861245
SLE 24.933268
SLL 22981.523891
SOS 624.324825
SRD 40.248477
STD 22683.951476
SVC 9.589967
SYP 14249.994157
SZL 20.902803
THB 37.792726
TJS 11.899889
TMT 3.833642
TND 3.357047
TOP 2.638671
TRY 41.641737
TTD 7.422798
TWD 36.332658
TZS 2923.758392
UAH 45.158896
UGX 4009.400205
USD 1.09595
UYU 46.167964
UZS 14171.813622
VES 77.086835
VND 28252.54745
VUV 134.896075
WST 3.078778
XAF 652.705611
XAG 0.037037
XAU 0.000361
XCD 2.966325
XDR 0.817067
XOF 652.705611
XPF 119.331742
YER 269.409315
ZAR 20.929909
ZMK 9864.868719
ZMW 30.636217
ZWL 352.89544
  • RBGPF

    69.0200

    69.02

    +100%

  • RELX

    -3.2800

    48.16

    -6.81%

  • NGG

    -3.4600

    65.93

    -5.25%

  • GSK

    -2.4800

    36.53

    -6.79%

  • CMSC

    0.0300

    22.29

    +0.13%

  • RYCEF

    -1.5500

    8.25

    -18.79%

  • VOD

    -0.8700

    8.5

    -10.24%

  • SCS

    -0.0600

    10.68

    -0.56%

  • CMSD

    0.1600

    22.83

    +0.7%

  • RIO

    -3.7600

    54.67

    -6.88%

  • BTI

    -2.0600

    39.86

    -5.17%

  • AZN

    -5.4600

    68.46

    -7.98%

  • JRI

    -0.8600

    11.96

    -7.19%

  • BCE

    0.0500

    22.71

    +0.22%

  • BCC

    0.8100

    95.44

    +0.85%

  • BP

    -2.9600

    28.38

    -10.43%

Hurricane Ian pounds Florida, leaves millions in dark
Hurricane Ian pounds Florida, leaves millions in dark / Photo: Ricardo ARDUENGO - AFP

Hurricane Ian pounds Florida, leaves millions in dark

Hurricane Ian left much of coastal southwest Florida in darkness early Thursday, bringing "catastrophic" flooding that left officials readying a huge emergency response to a storm of rare intensity.

Text size:

The US Border Patrol said 20 migrants were missing after their boat sank, with four Cubans swimming to shore in the Florida Keys islands and three rescued at sea by the coast guard.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the eye of the "extremely dangerous" hurricane made landfall just after 3:00 pm (1900 GMT) on the barrier island of Cayo Costa, west of the city of Fort Myers.

Dramatic television footage from the coastal city of Naples showed floodwaters surging into beachfront homes, submerging roads and sweeping away vehicles.

Some neighborhoods in Fort Myers, which has a population of more than 80,000, resembled lakes.

The NHC said Ian's maximum sustained winds reached 150 miles (240 kilometers) per hour when it landed.

It later weakened to a Category 1 hurricane with winds dropping to a maximum 75 miles per hour, battering Florida with storm surges, damaging winds and "life-threatening catastrophic" flooding, the NHC said at around 2:00 am local time Wednesday (0600 GMT).

More than two million customers were without electricity in Florida early Thursday, out of a total of more than 11 million, with southwestern areas of the state the hardest hit, according to the PowerOutage.us tracking website.

Ian is set to affect several million people across Florida and in the southeastern states of Georgia and South Carolina.

As hurricane conditions spread, forecasters warned of a once-in-a-generation calamity.

"This is going to be a storm we talk about for many years to come," said National Weather Service director Ken Graham. "It's a historic event."

Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis said the state was going to experience a "nasty, nasty day, two days."

- 'Life-threatening' -

The town of Punta Gorda, north of Fort Myers, was in near-total darkness after the storm wiped out power, save for the few buildings with generators.

Howling winds ripped branches off trees, pulled chunks out of roofs, and blew the fronds of palm trees horizontal.

About 2.5 million people were under mandatory evacuation orders in a dozen coastal Florida counties, with several dozen shelters set up, and voluntary evacuation recommended in others.

For those who decided to ride out the storm, authorities stressed it was too late to flee and residents should hunker down and stay indoors.

Airports in Tampa and Orlando stopped all commercial flights, and cruise ship companies delayed departures or canceled voyages.

With up to 30 inches (76 centimeters) of rain expected to fall on parts of the Sunshine State, and a storm surge that could reach devastating levels of five to eight feet (1.5 to 2.4 meters), authorities warned of dire emergency conditions.

The storm was set to move across central Florida before emerging in the Atlantic Ocean later Thursday.

- Rebuilding work begins -

Ian had plunged all of Cuba into darkness a day earlier, after battering the country's west as a Category 3 storm and downing the island's power network.

At least two people died in Pinar del Rio province, Cuban state media reported.

By Wednesday power had been restored for some residents of Havana and another 11 provinces, but not in Cuba's three worst-affected provinces in the west of the country.

In the United States, the Pentagon said 3,200 national guard personnel were called up in Florida, with another 1,800 on the way.

DeSantis said state and federal responders were assigning thousands of personnel to address the storm response.

"There will be thousands of Floridians who will need help rebuilding," he said.

As climate change warms the ocean's surface, the number of powerful tropical storms, or cyclones, with stronger winds and more precipitation are likely to increase.

The total number of cyclones, however, may not.

"There remains a consensus that there will be fewer storms, but that the strongest will get stronger," Lackmann told AFP.

E.Schneyder--NZN