Hurricane Ian regained strength as it headed toward South Carolina’s coast Friday, moving north after striking Florida with massive floods, power outages and leaving behind a trail of devastation.
Early reports indicate at least 12 people are dead from the storm, including two on Sanibel, an island of 7,000 people now completely cut-off from mainland after a large section of its causeway collapsed in the storm.
Ian strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane Thursday, with winds at 75mph as it nears South Carolina, where it is expected to make landfall Friday.
The system had weakened into a tropical storm as it moved over central Florida into the Atlantic, but officials in the Carolinas are warning the storm still may have a serious impact on the coast.
Ian is expected to head directly into Charleston, South Carolina, Friday during the early afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Hours before Hurricane Ian is expected to make landfall for a third time, officials in South Carolina say flooding has begun, and are urging residents to only travel if it’s essential.
Life-threatening storm surge conditions, strong sustained winds of 85 mph and flooding are expected to persist throughout Friday. Power outages have already begun for 11,750 people in South Carolina and about 8,000 in North Carolina without electricity.
The storm’s devastating impact persists, as there are still 1.9 million people without electricity in Florida.
On Thursday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that over 700 people have been rescued throughout the state since Wednesday.
DeSantis also said that officials expect the death toll to continue to rise.
‘We absolutely expect to have mortality from this hurricane,’ DeSantis said. ‘Just caution, people, there’s a process by where that is confirmed.’
‘The numbers are still unclear, but we are hearing early reports of what may be substantial loss of life,’ Biden said.
The hurricane center has warned that there may be ‘life-threatening’ storm surge conditions along the Carolina coast, as well as flooding in both the Carolinas as well as Virginia.
Forecasters say there may be a storm surge of up to 7 feet and up to 8 inches of rainfall for the coastal part of the Carolinas.
The center of the storm is expected to move more inland by Friday night and Saturday.
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