Dicing with death: Desperate selfie-takers gamble against 60mph winds and downed power lines in Key West Pier as deadly Category 4 Hurricane Ian barrels in
- Thrill-seeking selfie takers defied police orders to get the shot with giant waves
- Video shows people – including children – armed with cameras and selfie sticks
- Florida’s Key West is the first to feel Hurricane Ian’s wrath as it moves north
- The storm is continually gaining strength, recently upgraded to Category Four
- DeSantis has warned now is the last chance for residents to evacuate to safety
Selfie-takers desperate to get the shot have been dicing with death as they wade up to crashing waves whipped up by Hurricane Ian along Florida’s Key West pier.
Video shows people – including children – braving choppy waters armed with camera phones and selfie sticks as 60mph gusts of wind buffeted the keys.
The reckless snappers have been ‘doing it for the ‘gram’ – doing things for the sole purpose of posting it on Instagram – even as local police urged residents to stay inside and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis warned residents in the the hurricane’s path that ‘now is your last chance to evacuate.’
Key West Police Department warned it was not safe to go outside and that lives are threatened by standing water that could be electrified by downed powerlines.
Separate video showed palm trees lashed by strong winds and homes without electricity flooded by up to two feet in Key West.
Ian is set to make landfall in Charlotte County on the southwestern coast of Florida, the state’s governor Ron DeSantis said this morning, potentially as a Category Five storm.
Ian, which was only recently upgraded to a catastrophic Category Four hurricane, has been whipping up winds of 155mph, just below Category Five strength, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Selfie-takers risked 60mph winds to get up and close and personal with crashing waves whipped up by Hurricane Ian
A pair pose together for a selfie under dangerously stormy conditions along Florida’s Key West pier
A couple armed with a selfie stick smile as they ‘do it for the gram’, defying police warnings to stay indoors
Previous estimations of top wind speeds of 130 mph have now been well exceeded. The hurricane is centered about 75 miles west-southwest of Naples, Florida and is moving north at a forward speed of 10 mph (17kph), they added.
The major hurricane has prompted warnings of deadly winds and flooding and a possible storm surge that could reach 16ft along the state’s heavily populated Gulf Coast from Bonita Beach to the Tampa Bay region.
Florida residents have rushed to board up their homes, stash precious belongings on upper floors and flee.
Two people have already been rushed to hospital after a tornado hit an apartment building for people who are 55 years or older in Kings Point, Delray Beach, on Tuesday evening.
Large trees were tossed to the ground as parts of the building were completely torn and lifted with residents being evacuated as the tornado hit.
Another tornado hit South East Florida, with rain lashing down and footage showing a parking lot almost being flooded as palm tree’s swayed in the strong winds.
Damages are expected to reach $45billion as the storm continues to grow in strength, as more than two million Floridians have been urged to evacuate.
Satellite imagery shows Hurricane Ian beginning to make landfall over south west Florida after pounding Cuba. Recent data indicates Ian is rapidly intensifying with max sustained winds now up to 155 mph
These two satellite images show the progress Hurricane Ian is making as it passes over Cuba on its way to Florida’s west coast
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Tuesday there had already been at least two ‘radar-indicated tornadoes’ in the state, and warned those in areas projected to be hit hardest that their ‘time to evacuate is coming to an end.’
‘You need to evacuate now. You’re going to start feeling major impacts of this storm relatively soon,’ he said.
The major hurricane has prompted warnings of a possible dangerous storm surge that could reach 12ft, deadly winds and flooding along the state’s heavily populated Gulf Coast from Bonita Beach to the Tampa Bay region. Florida residents have rushed to board up their homes, stash precious belongings on upper floors and flee.
More than 17,000 people in Florida have already been left without power in Florida on Wednesday morning, even before Hurricane Ian made landfall.
The Florida Power and Light Company reported 17,255 outages across several counties in Florida, reports NBC News. In Broward, there were more than 6,700 outages while there were 5,700 outages in Miami-Dade.
DeSantis, who invoked a statewide state of emergency Sunday, has prepared 30,000 workers on standby to help once Florida’s power grid inevitably topples in Ian’s wrath.
‘It is a big storm, it is going to kick up a lot of water as it comes in,’ DeSantis said at a news conference in Sarasota, a coastal city of 57,000 in the storm’s projected path. He warned : ‘This the kind of storm surge that is life threatening.’
A man walks away from the beach ahead of Category Four Hurricane Ian’s landfall, in Fort Myers, Florida
News reporters film a last broadcast before final evacuations as the potential Category Five storm approaches
The Florida governor warned residents to prepare for impact, especially those in mobile homes along the west coast, which might be designed for Category Three hurricanes and 100mph winds, but may not be able to withstand what is coming.
‘You have in southwest Florida, really throughout the state, but really throughout the communities that may get hit with the initial impact of the eye of the storm, you have a lot of mobile homes,’ DeSantis said.
‘You have folks, and actually the way those are done, they can actually withstand 100 mile per hour winds, maybe 110 to be certified.
‘Expect heavy rains, strong winds, flash flooding, storm surge and even isolated tornados. Make preparations now,’ he said, adding that residents should anticipate power outages, fuel disruptions, and even evacuations in certain areas.
The announcement came after DeSantis had earlier declared a state of emergency in 24 counties in his home state, with President Biden over the weekend invoking his own emergency edict for the Everglades State, delaying scheduled trip to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.
Those orders have so far seen roughly 2.5 million Floridians ordered to evacuate their homes, as officials scramble to prepare for the storm’s now-inevitable US landfall – with the situation in Cuba serving as a stark warning of what may be to come.
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