A still-dangerous Ian was downgraded to tropical storm early Thursday with sustained winds of 65 m.p.h.
The massive storm roared ashore on Wednesday with 150-mile-per-hour winds, torrential rainfall, and a catastrophic storm surge that left entire coastal communities under feet of water.
The National Hurricane Center says one of the most powerful storms to hit the United States in decades made landfall along the southwestern coast of Florida near Cayo Costa shortly after 3:00 p.m. EDT.
At its worst, data from an Air Force Reserve reconnaissance aircraft indicated that Ian’s maximum sustained winds were estimated to be near 150 mph.
Record storm surge of 4.8 feet was reported in Naples, Florida.
A 126 mph wind gust was reported at Redfish Pass. The Earth Networks Station at the Naples Grande Beach Resort reported a wind gust of 112 mph.
Forecasters warned Hurricane Ian remained “extremely dangerous” even as the storm weakened as it plodded across the state.
Ian is the first Category 4 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico since Rita in 2005.
Ian Latest Path
Fueled by warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Ian grew to a catastrophic Category 4 hurricane Wednesday afternoon with top winds of 155 mph (250 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center.
By 11 p.m. the storm had downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane and continued to gradually weaken as it marched across the Florida peninsula with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph. The center was about 70 miles south of Orlando.
However, the storm continued to bring widespread dangerous weather impacts to the Florida peninsula late Wednesday, including strong wind gusts, torrential rain and persistent storm surge in some areas.
Nearly 2 million customers are now without power in the state, with most of the outages in the southwestern portion of the state.
The storm is expected to head off the eastern coast of Florida, and then turn back inland over Georgia and the Carolinas.
How Ian may impact the New York City and Tri-State area
Although the exact track is still uncertain, the remnants of Ian could head up to the northeast by the weekend into early next week.
As of Wednesday morning, spots mainly south of the City seemed to have the best chance of seeing some leftover moisture from Ian.
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