Rescuers evacuated stunned survivors on a large barrier island cut off by Hurricane Ian and Florida's death toll climbed sharply, as hundreds of thousands of people were still sweltering without power days after the monster storm rampaged from the state's southwestern coast up to the Carolinas. Florida, with nearly four dozen reported dead was hit hardest by the Category 4 hurricane, one of the strongest to make landfall in the United States. Flooded roadways and washed-out bridges to barrier islands left many people isolated, amid limited cell phone service and a lack of basic amenities such as water, electricity and the internet. Florida Gov Ron DeSantis said on Saturday that multibillionaire businessman Elon Musk was providing some 120 Starlink satellites to help bridge some of the communication issues. Starlink, a satellite-based internet system created by Musk's SpaceX, will provide high-speed connectivity. Florida utilities were working to restore power. As of Sunday morning
Hurricane Ian left a path of destruction in southwest Florida, trapping people in flooded homes, damaging the roof of a hospital intensive care unit and knocking out power to 2 million people before aiming for the Atlantic Coast. One of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit the United States barrelled across the Florida peninsula overnight on Wednesday, threatening catastrophic flooding inland, the National Hurricane Centre warned. The centre's 2 am advisory said Ian was expected to emerge over Atlantic waters later on Thursday, with flooding rains continuing across central and northern Florida. In Port Charlotte, along Florida's Gulf Coast, the storm surge flooded a lower-level emergency room in a hospital even as fierce winds ripped away part of the roof from its intensive care unit, according to a doctor who works there. Water gushed down onto the ICU, forcing staff to evacuate the hospital's sickest patients -- some of whom were on ventilators to other floors, said Dr. Birgit .
Hurricane Ian tore into western Cuba on Tuesday as a major hurricane, with nothing to stop it from intensifying into a catastrophic Category 4 hurricane before it hits Florida on Wednesday. Ian made landfall at 4:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday in Cuba's Pinar del Rio province, where officials set up 55 shelters, evacuated 50,000 people, rushed in emergency personnel and took steps to protect crops in Cuba's main tobacco-growing region. The U.S. National Hurricane Centre said significant wind and storm surge impacts were occurring Tuesday morning in western Cuba. Ian sustained top winds of 205 kmph as it moved over the city of Pinar del Rio. As much as 14 feet of storm surge was predicted along Cuba's coast. After passing over Cuba, Ian was forecast to strengthen even more over warm Gulf of Mexico waters, reaching top winds of 225 kmh before making landfall again. Tropical storm-force winds were expected in Florida late Tuesday, reaching hurricane force Wednesday morning. The hurricane centr
Tropical Storm Danielle picked up strength in the and was forecast to become the first hurricane of an unusually quiet storm season later on Friday. The storm is not currently a threat to any land. The storm's maximum sustained winds were near 65 mph (100 kph). Additional strengthening is forecast, the US National Hurricane Centre said. The storm is centred about 925 miles (1,485 kilometres) west of the Azores and is moving east near 2 mph (4 kph). The hurricane centre said the storm is expected to meander in the Atlantic over the next few days. The tropical storm comes amid what had been a calm hurricane season. It is the first time since 1941 that the Atlantic has gone from July 3 to the end of August with no named storm, Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach had told The Associated Press earlier.
The storm crawled deeper inland on Monday, with experts predicting the center of its remnants will settle for a while near the New York-Connecticut border before heading back east
Long lines stretched through supermarkets and hardware store shelves were nearly bare as residents of Belize bought materials to board up windows and doors ahead of Nana''s expected landfall
The Virgin Islands is haunted by the ghosts of failed restaurants