Hurricane Ian made its historic landfall on Wednesday September 28, 2022. Just after 3:00pm, the category four storm hit North Captiva Island where its reign of terror began.

As Ian approached Florida, people were in a state of panic. Evacuation orders were put in place, and residents who chose to stay home were urged to remain indoors. The hurricane was originally predicted to hit Florida as a category two storm, but everything changed as it approached the coastline. Ian quickly gained power, allowing it to jump up almost three levels on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

As the storm continued through the evening, it caused monumental destruction all throughout the state. Ian brought with it record breaking floods, dangerous storm surges, heavy rainfall, and high winds. The storm’s extreme conditions left neighborhoods ramshackled. Houses are torn apart, with their remnants floating throughout the flooded streets. Trees have smashed through rooftops, and are left lying on top of power lines. Houses and cars are buried under multiple feet of water. Millions of Florida residents are left without power. The state is in utter disrepair.

“My neighborhood is all under water,” Orlando resident Dewin Jimenez said. “They had the national guard getting people out. The road is blocked, and I can’t even get near the neighborhood.”

Dewin is just one of millions of Floridians stuck in this same devastating situation. Wanting to go home, but not knowing if they even have a home to go back to.

After seeing the destruction left by the storm, President Biden jumped into action. The US Government will cover 100% of all costs associated with emergency response due to hurricane Ian. Biden assures residents that he is doing everything in his power to help the State recover from the storm.

After the hurricane left Florida, the US thought all of the damage was done; unfortunately this was not the case. As the storm reentered the ocean, it intensified, bringing it back up to hurricane speeds. On Friday September 30, 2022 hurricane Ian once again made landfall on US soil. The storm decided to make its next target Georgetown, South Carolina. The damage was much less intense, but still brought destruction to much of the coast line. Ian left South Carolina residents in flooded streets and without power. As before, the hurricane’s conditions caused total devastation.

As Chief Fire Marshall told CNN’s Amanda Musa, “Hurricane Ian is likely the largest natural disaster in Florida history.”

To help support the victims of Hurricane Ian you can:

Donate to the Florida Disaster Fund at https://www.volunteerflorida.org/donatefdf/

Donate to CNN’s Hurricane Ian relief fund at https://action.publicgood.com/campaign/ad84c140-ae22-4ec7-beb9-6d9925377f83

Donate by texting “disaster” to the number 20222

Donate to the Red Cross Hurricane Ian relief at https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation.html/

Donate to Florida Ian Response at https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ianresponsefl