A weakened but still formidable Hurricane Ian chugged across Florida toward the Atlantic seaboard on Thursday after thrashing the state's Gulf Coast with fierce winds, torrential downpours and raging surf that flooded oceanside communities.
By Thursday morning, Ian had weakened into a tropical storm and was trekking across Florida, leaving Gulf Coast residents to pick up the pieces.
Roiling seawaters swept into waterfront homes in Naples, Fort Myers and other towns and cities. Firefighters waded through chest-high waters to rescue people, including one woman in Naples who was stranded in her car. Some utilities had started to restore customers now that the storm has passed southern Florida but the number of outages continued to increase as the storm moved across Florida towards the Atlantic.
A large open lot in front of a Winn Dixie grocery store became a lake, with waters reaching the trunks of some the cars parked there. Communications were nearly impossible in many spots.Ian was forecast to weaken further as it crossed the Florida peninsula on a northeasterly track and was expected to reach the Atlantic Coast on Thursday afternoon, the NHC said.
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