Hurricane Ian made landfall in western Florida on Wednesday as a powerful Category 4 storm, with sustained winds in excess of 150 miles per hour, and it’s expected to continue to churn slowly toward the north, leaving flooding and devastation in its wake.
According to the National Hurricane Center, Ian made landfall just after 3 p.m. Eastern time as a Category 4 hurricane.
As of 3:35 p.m. Central, the storm is still producing sustained winds of 145 miles per hour, and is moving slowly toward the north-northeast at nine miles per hour.
As it moves through Florida, Ian is expected to dump incredible amounts of rain, with some areas to the north of Orlando potentially seeing 20 or more inches of precipitation by Monday evening, according to NHC projections.
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The storm’s path has been erratic ever since it began to move through the Caribbean and toward Cuba and Florida, but forecasters are continuing to dial in their projections on where it will head as it drifts northward.
According to the latest updates from the NHC, tropical storm-force winds from the hurricane are expected to arrive in Jacksonville, Florida by 8 a.m. Thursday morning. The storm is then expected to continue slowly moving northward, with the ferocious winds expected to reach southern Georgia by Thursday afternoon and into the evening hours.
Local
Storm surge warnings are in effect for Georgia and South Carolina through Sunday.
The projected path of the storm keeps it headed northward, moving into South Carolina by 8 a.m. Friday, and into North Carolina by 8 p.m. that evening as the weakening system continues to move up the East Coast of the United States.
It isn’t clear how strong the storm will be once it arrives there, but projections indicate that it could still be a tropical storm as it enters South Carolina Friday morning.
Both Charlotte, North Carolina and Knoxville, Tennessee could be hit by the remnants of the storm, which expected to drop breathtaking quantities of rain across the southeastern United States.
According to the latest rainfall projections, southern portions of South Carolina, including Charleston, and areas of Georgia including Savannah could potentially see between 6-to-10 inches of rain by Monday evening, and heavy rain is expected throughout North Carolina and into southern Virginia as the remnants of the storm track northward, with up to six inches of rain possible.
All the latest information on the storm can be found on the NHC’s website.
