Hurricane Ian moves to Carolinas, after hitting Florida

• Hurricane Ian expected to hit the coast of South Carolina late Friday.
• Strongest sustained winds around 85 mph (140 kph). Forecasters predict a “life-threatening storm surge” along the Carolina coast later Friday.
• The National Hurricane Center puts Ian about 105 miles southeast of Charleston, South Carolina.

It is expected that Hurricane Ian will hit the coast of South Carolina late Friday, move over the eastern part of the state, and then move up to North Carolina.

The latest report from the National Hurricane Center says that Ian is about 105 miles southeast of Charleston, South Carolina’s largest city with about 800,000 people.

Ian’s strongest sustained winds have stayed around 85 miles per hour (140 kilometres per hour), and the NHC says that winds of tropical storm strength are still blowing along most of the Carolinas’ coast.

By the afternoon, the area is expected to have hurricane conditions and dangerous storm surges.

Ian is expected to weaken quickly after it hits land, turn into a “extratropical low,” which is a cyclone with a low pressure centre, as it moves over North Carolina, and then disappear by Saturday night.

All of South Carolina’s coast was under a hurricane warning on Thursday, so a steady stream of cars left Charleston. Many of them probably listened to the warnings from officials to go to higher ground. In an area that often floods, sandbags were used to protect storefronts from high water.

Friday morning in Charleston, strong gusts of wind bent tree branches and blew steady drops of rain in all directions. The streets of the 350-year-old city were mostly empty because the storm that was coming made the normally busy morning commute quiet.

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