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Ian was set to make landfall Friday afternoon on the coast of South Carolina after strengthening late Thursday into a Category 1 hurricane. It will then move inland across the state and into North Carolina by Saturday.
Officials in Florida, meanwhile, were assessing the damage and continuing search and rescue efforts after Ian slammed into the Fort Myers area on Wednesday as a Category 4 storm. There were 21 deaths, but Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said Friday that only one was confirmed as a result of the storm. Officials were still evaluating the cause of the 20 other deaths.
There had been 700,000 rescues as of Friday morning, officials said. Meanwhile, 1.9 million customers were still without power across the state.
“There’s been really a Herculean effort,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday morning of crews’ work to restore power, assess damage and rescue residents.
- GET TEXT UPDATES: Sign up here for text updates on Hurricane Ian.
- IAN TRACKER: Where is Ian headed? See the map.
- BEFORE AND AFTER: A look at Ian’s damage.
Latest developments:
►In South Carolina, President Joe Biden declared an emergency and ordered federal assistance, according to the White House.
►Losses from Hurricane Ian so far range between $25 billion and $40 billion, the Fitch Ratings credit agency reported Thursday.
►At least nine people were rescued after a boat with more than 20 migrants sank in storm weather near the Florida Keys. On Friday, the Coast Guard said one person’s body was recovered near Ocean Edge Marina.
►Airports in Tampa and Orlando were Tampa International Airport and Orlando International Airport are expected to reopen Friday, while Fort Myers Airport in southwest Florida remained closed Friday. More than 1,660 flights were canceled Friday due to the storm in the U.S., according to FlightAware.
Quick links:
GET TEXT UPDATES: Sign up here for text updates on Hurricane Ian.
HURRICANE IAN TRACKER: Where is Ian headed? See the map.
IAN FORECAST: Ian likely to spend days dumping rain on Florida. Here’s the outlook.
In Charleston, powerful wind gusts and rain as Ian approached
Heavy rains and tropical storm conditions had already reached the coasts of Georgia and the Carolinas by Friday morning, where life-threatening storm surge and hurricane conditions were expected to develop. Rainfall of up to 8 inches threatened flooding from South Carolina to Virginia, the National Weather Service reported.
Meteorologists were expecting conditions to steadily deteriorate across Charleston on Friday morning, when Ian was located 105 miles south-southeast of the coastal city with 85 mph winds. Traffic had cleared the streets, muting the typically bustling morning commute ahead of the storm.
Some areas had already received between 2 and 3 inches of rain by 8 a.m., and “quite a bit of flooding” had begun inundating downtown Charleston as heavy rain fell amid rising tide levels, said Steven Taylor, a lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Charleston.
Wind gusts were observed along the Charleston County coast at 50 to 60 mph and the area could see between 4 to 7 feet of flooding Friday, Taylor said. “We recently had a wind gust as high as 66 mph on the south end of Folly Beach and winds continue to increase across the area,” Taylor told USA TODAY.
Ian’s center is expected to travel northeast of Charleston by Friday afternoon, and forecasters anticipate weakening of the storm as it moves into North Carolina.
“We do expect a fairly rapid improvement of conditions as it moves to the north, and we expect by this evening, things will start settling down fairly quickly,” Taylor said.
Hurricane Ian tracker
After slowly moving across Florida, Hurricane Ian gained new strength over the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday before wreaking havoc on South Carolina, Georgia and more states along the East Coast. Check here for the latest updates on the storms strength and track where it’s headed next.
As of 8 a.m. Friday, Ian was about 105 miles south-southeast of Charleston, and was moving north at 9 mph with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph, the hurricane center said. Check here for the latest updates on the storms strength and track where it’s headed next.
Fort Myers Beach ‘is gone’ after Hurricane Ian damage
Fort Myers Beach took the brunt of Hurricane Ian’s assault on Florida’s coastline. The Category 4 storm sent 150 mph winds and a towering storm surge tearing through the town’s center. On Thursday, residents began to see what could be salvaged from the wreckage.
“I think mine is going to be a total loss,” Joy McCormack said as she stood across the road from a stretch of mobile homes, townhouses and condos that were knee-deep in flood waters. “It’s the only house I have and if it’s gone…” She trailed off.
For Mitch Stough and his brother, Fort Myers Beach was their livelihood. Now, it’s been utterly destroyed. Stough worked at the landmark Lani Kai resort and said the storm surge stripped the vacation spot’s first floor to its structural elements.
“There’s nothing there,” Stough said. “Fort Myers Beach is gone.” Read more here.
— Dan Glaun, John Kennedy, Samantha Neely, The News-Press
Contributing: John Bacon, Thao Nguyen, Jorge Ortiz, Doyle Rice, Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
