Hurricane Ian has made landfall in the state of Florida today, and many news outlets — local and national — have been going the extra mile to produce snapshots of exactly what it’s looking like.
Spectrum News reporter Zach Covey shared the details of the storm’s landfall, which occurred at 3:05 p.m. ET.
“This is the EXACT same location where Hurricane Charley made landfall as a Category 4 storm back in 2004,” wrote FOX4KC Meteorologist Jacob Lanier.
Flooding, rapid force winds, a varying degrees of destruction have been caught on camera by CNN, The Weather Channel and other national and local outlets – not to mention firsthand accounts shared across Twitter Wednesday afternoon.
CNN’s Bill Weir reported from Punta Gorda as the storm approaches Florida’s southwest coast.
“The storm is going to hurt,” Weir said in a clip posted to Twitter. “All you can do is just hope for minimum, minimum, blood sweat and tears.”
Scott Sabol, Meteorologist at Fox 8 WJW, highlighted a time-lapse video of the destructive storm surge onto Sanibel Island posted by one user who gathers weather highlights from a live camera Google Map.
Hurricane hunter Nick Underwood shared footage from inside his flight into the storm, describing it as the roughest flight of his career by far, writing, “I have never felt such lateral motion.”
According to The Miami Herald, nearly 2.5 million people in the evacuation zones along the hurricane’s path have evacuated, but at least 31 people on an unidentified barrier island in Charlotte County have remained to shelter in place.
Other news stations have pointed out lighthearted aspects of the hurricane’s hitting of Florida, comparing light flashes to the arrival of the transformers, checking The Waffle House index (whether or not the breakfast chain remains open indicates where evacuations are most dire) and more.
Brian Stelter, meanwhile, shared that The Weather Channel’s in-studio meteorologist told colleague Jim Cantore to “stop his live report and seek cover because it’s so dangerous to be outside in Punta Gorda.”
Read on and scroll down for more coverage of Hurricane Ian and its impact and aftermath on Florida.
