A photo shows a view from Fort Myers, Florida, on Wednesday amid Hurricane Ian.
Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Hurricane Ian battered Florida on Wednesday, making landfall as a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds near 150 mph and what the National Hurricane Center called a “catastrophic” tidal surge of 12 to 18 feet.
Florida Power & Light warned that “widespread, extended outages” are likely and may be prolonged if Ian forces the state utility to rebuild parts of its system. The company provides power to more than 12 million people.
Nick Underwood, a researcher who was aboard a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration flight into Ian on Wednesday morning, tweeted that it was “the roughest flight of my career so far.”
“There was coffee everywhere,” he added, along with a video of the flight. “I have never felt such lateral motion.”
When I say this was the roughest flight of my career so far, I mean it. I have never seen the bunks come out like that. There was coffee everywhere. I have never felt such lateral motion.
Also on Wednesday, the US Border Patrol rescued seven Cuban migrants whose vessel sank during the storm as it traveled near Stock Island, located to the south of Florida’s mainland. The agency began a search and rescue operation for 20 additional missing individuals.
See below for scenes from the storm:
A man livestreams as gusts from Hurricane Ian hit Punta Gorda on Wednesday.
RICARDO ARDUENGO via Getty Images
Gusts from Hurricane Ian hit Punta Gorda on Wednesday.
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Firefighters look out at a firetruck that stands in water amid the storm surge from Hurricane Ian on Wednesday in Naples.
Naples Fire Department via AP
A tree is uprooted by strong winds as Hurricane Ian churns to the south in Sarasota.
Sean Rayford via Getty Images
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Sailboats anchored in Roberts Bay are blown around by 50 mph winds in Venice as Hurricane Ian approaches the western coast of Florida on Wednesday.
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A local resident walks in the rain and wind at a bay in St. Petersburg as Hurricane Ian approaches Wednesday.
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A damaged sign sits on the side of state road I-275 as Hurricane Ian approaches Wednesday in St. Petersburg.
Gerardo Mora via Getty Images
Residents leave with their belongings after an apparent tornado spawned from Hurricane Ian in Delray Beach on Wednesday.
Carline Jean/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP
David Dellinger of the National Weather Service surveys the damage from the tornado spawned from Hurricane Ian in Delray Beach on Wednesday.
Carline Jean/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP
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Utility trucks are staged near the Orange County Convention Center ahead of Hurricane Ian on Wednesday in Orlando.
John Raoux/AP
Members of a softball team play in Cocoa Beach on Wednesday as the eastern coast of central Florida braces for Hurricane Ian.
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Jacob Woods, a meteorology student at the Mississippi State University, measures wind gusts as Hurricane Ian approaches Wednesday in Sarasota.
