Hurricane Ian lashes South Carolina, as Florida death toll hits 23
- Residents are still reckoning with the damage in Florida, with officials trying to confirm how many of the deaths are storm-related
- Wind-related property losses in the state could cost insurers up to US$32 billion while flooding losses could go as high as US$15 billion
Hurricane Ian, one of the worst storms ever to hit the United States, roared into South Carolina on Friday, delivering a powerful second punch after walloping Florida.
The National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said Ian made landfall near Georgetown, South Carolina, as a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 140km/h (85mph).
It was later downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone but the NHC warned coastal residents that the “dangerous storm surge, flash flooding and high wind threat continues”.
As for storm-ravaged Florida, President Joe Biden said: “We’re just beginning to see the scale of the destruction.
“It’s likely to rank among the worst in the nation’s history,” he said of Ian, which barrelled into Florida’s southwest coast on Wednesday as a Category 4 storm, a tick shy of the most powerful on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale.
02:11
‘Biblical storm surge’: Hurricane Ian rips through US state of Florida causing widespread damage
The death toll from the storm stands at 23, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said on Friday evening.