Watch: Hurricane Ian in Florida ‘escalated shortly’ as seen in time-lapse video | World News

Florida quickly remodeled right into a catastrophe zone inundated by seawater as Hurricane Ian hit the state on Wednesday after pummeling Cuba on Tuesday and leaving the island nation with out energy for hours.

A time-lapse video shared extensively on social media confirmed how the floodwater swept away automobiles as Hurricane Ian reached its peak wind speeds of 155 mph shortly earlier than landfall in Florida, producing life-threatening storm surges of as much as 12 ft.

Watch video right here:

Forward of Hurricane Ian's landfall, greater than 2.5 million residents had been instructed to evacuate as emergency shelters had been made. Though, Hurricane Ian's winds diminished considerably after dusk and the storm was downgraded to Class 1, the Nationwide Hurricane Middle (NHC) mentioned.

"This storm is doing a quantity on the state of Florida," mentioned Governor Ron DeSantis.

The slow-moving hurricane will proceed to unleash rain which may end result to extra flooding, NHC warned.