Hurricane Ian Is Back on Land

Storm makes second landfall, this time in South Carolina
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 30, 2022 1:48 PM CDT
Hurricane Ian Is Back on Land
University of Central Florida students try to get into their apartment near the campus in Orlando, Fla., on Friday.   (AP Photo)

Hurricane Ian made another landfall Friday, this time in South Carolina, after carving a swath of destruction across Florida earlier this week. The US National Hurricane Center says Ian’s center came ashore Friday afternoon near Georgetown as a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 85mph, per the Washington Post and AP. Before landfall, sheets of rain whipped trees and power lines and left many areas on Charleston’s downtown peninsula under water. A popular pier in the beach community of Pawleys Island collapsed and floated away. In Myrtle Beach, waves were pushing against the city’s boardwalk tourist area, flowing over where thousands of tourists typically fill the wide sandy stretch.

On Wednesday, Ian hit Florida’s Gulf Coast as a much more powerful Category 4 hurricane with 150mph winds, flooding homes and leaving nearly 2.7 million people without power. Ian left a broad swath of destruction after it came ashore on Florida’s Gulf Coast as one of the strongest storms ever to hit the US. The storm flooded areas on both of Florida’s coasts, tore homes from their slabs, and demolished beachfront businesses. At least nine people were confirmed dead—a number that was almost certain to increase as officials confirm more deaths and search for people.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that rescue crews had gone door-to-door to over 3,000 homes in the hardest-hit areas. “There's really been a Herculean effort,” he said during a news conference in Tallahassee. Climate change added at least 10% more rain to Hurricane Ian, according to a study prepared immediately after the storm, said its co-author, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab climate scientist Michael Wehner. Among those killed were an 80-year-old woman and a 94-year-old man who relied on oxygen machines that stopped working amid power outages, as well as a 67-year-old man who was waiting to be rescued from rising water inside his home, authorities said. (More Hurricane Ian stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X