This live blog is now closed. All the latest updates on hurricane Ian will be in our new blog:
Summary
The full extent of damage from Hurricane Ian is likely to remain unknown for some hours, with power and communications disrupted in many areas and some emergency responders forced to wait for the return of daylight and safer conditions before beginning a full search and rescue operation.
This blog will now pause, but at 2am Florida time, this is what we know.
Ian has weakened to a Category 1 storm as it moves inland but continues to lash the state with torrential rain, with the National Hurricane Centre warning of catastrophic flooding across central Florida.
The storm surge flooded a hospital’s lower level emergency room in Port Charlotte, while fierce winds tore part of its fourth floor roof from its intensive care unit, forcing staff to move the hospital’s sickest patients to other floors.
In coastal Florida, desperate people posted to Facebook and other social sites, pleading for rescue for themselves or loved ones, the Associated Press reported. Some video showed debris-covered water sloshing toward homes’ eaves. A coastal sheriff’s office reported that it was getting many calls from people trapped in flooded homes.
An estimated 2.2 million customers in Florida are without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us.
Seven people had survived after a boat carrying migrants from Cuba sank near the Florida Keys, officials said, but rescue crews were still searching for an additional twenty people, the Associated Press reported.
A Weather Channel meteorologist who has covered more than 90 storms in his career said that he had experienced nothing like Hurricane Ian in over 30 years.
The governors of Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina all preemptively declared states of emergency, the Associated Press reported.
You can read our full report here
Updated
