After spending most of Thursday as a tropical storm, Ian was upgraded to a hurricane again as it takes aim at the South Carolina coastline.
Ian is forecast to make landfall somewhere near Charleston, South Carolina, at about 2pm today. It will produce life-threatening flooding, storm surge and strong winds across parts of Florida, Georgia and North and South Carolina, according to the National Hurricane Center. As Ian heads for landfall over South Carolina today, president Joe Biden issued an emergency declaration for the state.
“Ian could slightly strengthen before landfall, and is forecast to rapidly weaken over the southeastern United States late Friday into Saturday,” the advisory said.
Dozens of rescue operations have been taking place across Florida after unprecedented flooding from one of the most powerful hurricanes ever recorded in the United States.
Thousands of people are stranded across the state as coastguard helicopters were seen plucking people from roofs after several feet of water surged into neighbourhoods. Some 2.5million people were currently without power.
Meanwhile, the damage and economic losses caused by Hurricane Ian could amount to as much as $120bn, according to a new estimate.
