Floridians are turning out in droves to take a selfie with Hurricane Ian. Residents of Key West love to dice with death during hurricane season. Even 60 mph winds and downed power lines aren’t enough to stop them from playing on the nearly submerged pier. This one scores Category 4 as it makes landfall but officials have already clocked winds at Cat 5 strength of 155 mph.
Dying for a selfie
As Hurricane Ian creeps up on landfall in Charlotte County, which lies along the southwestern coast of Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis noted the potential for it to be a Category 5 storm and warned residents not to try and take a selfie in dangerous conditions.
As usual, they ignored him and did it anyway. The National Hurricane Center in Miami is keeping a close eye on it.
Today’s 60 mph winds were barely a breeze to folks taking one selfie after another with monster waves and sea spray in the background. One couple admits, “they ‘do it for the gram‘, defying police warnings to stay indoors.” Instagram, it seems is the primary motivation for practically everyone out there.
Officials are warning of deadly winds and flooding, along with a potential 16 foot storm surge all along the “heavily populated Gulf Coast from Bonita Beach to the Tampa Bay region.”
Most of the residents of affected areas “rushed to board up their homes, stash precious belongings on upper floors and flee.” Others grabbed a selfie stick and headed to the beach.
“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.” That happened 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.”
Over $45 billion in damage
A second tornado touched down in an unspecified part of South East Florida. Reports say rain was lashing down and parking lots flooded. Initial estimates of the damage say it could easily hit $45 billion.
The storm is still getting stronger and “more than two million Floridians have been urged to evacuate.” Of course they’ll have to snap a selfie of the storm in the rear-view mirror to go with it.
Cuba already got drenched and so far, more than “17,000 people in Florida have already been left without power” as of Wednesday morning. That was before Ian crawled up on land so everyone could take a selfie.
Governor DeSantis invoked a statewide state of emergency and already prepared “30,000 workers on standby to help once Florida’s power grid inevitably topples in Ian’s wrath.” Joe Biden avoided talking to him but called all the mayors individually.
DeSantis will be battered down tight, not out taking a selfie in it. This, he warns, “is a big storm, it is going to kick up a lot of water as it comes in. This the kind of storm surge that is life threatening.”
He warned all of the state’s residents to “prepare for impact, especially those in mobile homes along the west coast, which might be designed for Category Three hurricanes and 100 mph winds, but may not be able to withstand what is coming.“
