Hurricane Ian veers north to South Carolina after pummelling Florida
CBC
A resurgent Hurricane Ian barrelled north on Friday toward a second landfall in South Carolina, a day after carving a path of destruction across central Florida that left rescue crews racing to reach trapped residents along the state's Gulf Coast.
Ian, which had weakened to a tropical storm during its march across Florida, regained Category 1 hurricane strength on Thursday afternoon while churning toward South Carolina above the Atlantic Ocean, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 120 km/h, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
The hurricane was forecast to hit near low-lying Charleston, S.C., about 2 p.m. ET on Friday, bringing potentially life-threatening flooding, storm surges and winds. Hundreds of miles of coastline, stretching from Georgia to North Carolina, was under a hurricane warning.
The extent of the damage in Florida, where Ian first came ashore on Wednesday as one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the U.S. mainland, became more apparent on Thursday as emergency crews began reaching stranded residents, though the death toll remained uncertain.
Four people were confirmed dead in Florida. They included two residents of hard-hit Sanibel Island along Florida's west coast, Sanibel city manager Dana Souza said late Thursday. Three people were reportedly killed in Cuba after the hurricane struck the island on Tuesday.
At an evening news briefing, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis acknowledged some people had perished but declined to confirm a specific figure, warning that official confirmation was still needed.
"We fully expect to have mortality from this hurricane," he said.
Some of the damage to coastal towns, including Fort Myers Beach, was "indescribable," added DeSantis, who surveyed the affected areas from the air on Thursday.
Earlier on Thursday, President Joe Biden warned Ian could prove to be the deadliest hurricane in Florida history, saying preliminary reports suggested a "substantial" loss of life.
More than 2.3 million homes and businesses remained without power on Thursday evening, according to the tracking website PowerOutage.us.
Officials in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina urged residents to prepare for dangerous conditions.
Charleston is particularly at risk; a city-commissioned report released in November 2020 found about 90 per cent of all residential properties were vulnerable to storm surge flooding. Parts of northeast South Carolina, near Charleston, could also experience up to 20 centimetres of rain.
WATCH | Ian's path was catastrophic and massive:
Predicted storm surges were not as severe as those issued by the NHC when the storm was approaching Florida. Edisto Beach, S.C., a resort destination about 50 kilometres south of Charleston, was expected to see a one- to two-metre surge.
The former secretary general of NATO says he doesn't think allies will be pulled further into the conflict in the Middle East, but he's concerned the ongoing war with Iran will benefit Russia's economy and take the world's attention away from the invasion of Ukraine.
As American and Israeli strikes pound Iran — while it attacks shipping and energy infrastructure across the Persian Gulf — U.S. President Donald Trump made a new threat to Tehran's leaders.
The armed man who rammed his vehicle into one of the largest Reform synagogues in the U.S. Thursday has been identified as a 41-year-old naturalized citizen born in Lebanon, according to federal officials.
With jagged cliffs rising from the Arabian Sea, the Strait of Hormuz is striking in its scenery — and these days, its emptiness. This resource superhighway, which normally hosts more than a hundred of the world’s largest oil and liquid natural gas (LNG) tankers every day, has seen no more than a handful all week.
The Canadian government said Tuesday it is alarmed by the escalation of violence and attacks in Lebanon, as the war in the Middle East expands.
In a resounding victory that is guaranteed to reshape Nepal's politics, rapper-turned-politician Balendra Shah appeared headed for a landslide win in the South Asian country's first polls since youth-led protests toppled the previous government last fall.
China’s latest blueprint for driving growth in its economy was largely written before the U.S. and Israel instigated the most far-reaching war in the Middle East in decades.
U.S. President Donald Trump's firing of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday overshadowed the announcement of his plans to nominate Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin as her successor.
The truck carrying Nepali prime ministerial candidate Balendra Shah was swarmed by cheering supporters in the capital, Kathmandu, on Saturday, unable to inch forward as the former rapper, wearing sunglasses and a sleek black suit, danced on top of the roof.
Israel sent troops into southern Lebanon on Tuesday and warned residents of more than 80 villages to evacuate as the Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group said it was ready for an "open war" with Israel in the wake of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump has given Americans a short list of his objectives in attacking Iran, but when it comes to the justification for launching the war and how the conflict is expected to play out, he and his team are sending mixed messages.
Omid Golabkesh dragged his suitcase down a long hallway marking the exit of the Kapikoy border crossing in eastern Turkey. He had nearly reached the end of an exhausting journey that included a 12-hour drive to the checkpoint from his home in Tehran.