MIAMI — Hurricane Ian made landfall as a Category 4 storm in Cayo Costa, an island off the coast of Fort Myers, at 3 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, then came ashore just south of Punta Gorda an hour later.
The National Hurricane Center said the massive Category 4 storm made landfall on the barrier island with 150 mph maximum sustained winds that weakened to 145 mph winds by the time it made landfall on the mainland, just south of Punta Gorda near Pirate Harbor.
The storm was already “causing catastrophic storm surge, winds and flooding” in southwest Florida early Wednesday afternoon, the beginning of what promised to be a damaging path across the peninsula. The most immediate and life-threatening concern was storm surge — the waters of the Gulf of Mexico pushed inland by Ian.
