Hurricane Ian devastates southwest Florida
A massive, near-Category 5 storm brought a catastrophic surge to the Fort Myers area, among the costliest hurricanes in US history.
Hurricane Ian slammed into southwest Florida this September as a massive, near-Category 5 storm, bringing a catastrophic storm surge and ferocious winds to the Fort Myers area in one of the deadliest and costliest hurricanes in the state's history.
Ian came ashore with sustained winds of around 150 miles per hour, driving a wall of water ashore that submerged coastal communities. Barrier islands including Sanibel and Fort Myers Beach were devastated, with homes swept away and the causeway connecting Sanibel to the mainland severed.
The storm's enormous size and slow movement compounded the disaster, as it crawled across the Florida peninsula dropping torrential rain that caused widespread inland flooding long after the surge had receded. The death toll climbed into the hundreds, making it one of the deadliest hurricanes to strike Florida in decades.
The damage ran well into the tens of billions of dollars, ranking Ian among the costliest weather disasters in US history and straining the state's property insurance market.
Ian underscored the lethal danger of storm surge, which remains the greatest threat to life in a hurricane, and the particular vulnerability of low-lying, heavily developed coastlines. It also highlighted the compounding hazards of a large, slow storm that can threaten with surge, wind and inland flooding all at once, leaving a long and painful recovery in its wake.