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Condom on a microphone and boats in the street - Hurricane Ian slams into Florida

Ben Domensino

Hurricane Ian became one of the strongest hurricanes on record to strike Florida when it roared up the state’s western coastline on Wednesday.

Ian made landfall near Cayo Costa, Florida as a high-end category four hurricane at around 3:05pm EDT on Wednesday, September 28. At landfall, Ian was packing sustained one-minute wind speeds of 150 mph (240 km/h) near its core and had a central pressure of around 940 hPa.

According to Philip Klotzbach, a meteorologist specialising in hurricanes at Colorado State University, Ian was the equal fourth strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in Florida, based on wind speed.

Another impressive feature of Hurricane Ian was prolific lightning activity in its eye wall. Lightning is more common in the outer rainbands of hurricanes/tropical cyclones, but it is rare to see so much lightning around the eye.

Video: Satellite imagery showing lots of lightning around the eye of Hurricane Ian as it made landfall on Wednesday. Source: CIRA/CSU & NOAA

This incredibly powerful system caused a dangerous mix of heavy rain, powerful winds, a massive storm surge and dangerous waves along a densely populated stretch of Florida’s west coast.

Images captured by traffic cameras showed water rapidly inundating the coastal zone as Hurricane Ian’s powerful winds and low atmospheric pressure combined to create a dangerous storm surge.

According to the U.S. National Weather Service, this storm surge was reaching a whopping 12 to 18 ft (3.7 to 5.5 m) above ground level along parts of Florida’s exposed southwestern coastline as Ian crossed the coast.

A storm surge of this magnitude is high enough to cover some single story buildings, which appears to have happened in the city of Naples in southwest Florida.

Video also emerged of boats floating down flooded streets in Fort Myers on Wednesday afternoon as the storm surge inundated the coastal city.

Questionable media coverage

The myriad dangers of this powerful hurricane were well forecast and widely communicated by the U.S. National Weather Service ahead of its arrival.

Fortunately, this gave residents plenty of time to evacuate the high-risk areas and find a safer place to ride out the storm.

Unfortunately, increasingly accurate hurricane forecasts are also giving a growing contingent of media reporters and storm chasers more time to get themselves into the path of these life-threatening weather events.

Media coverage and in-situ observations undoubtedly play an important role in communicating critical information to the public during hurricanes and tropical cyclones. However, this event has shown that risk is sometimes overlooked in pursuit for reward, even by trained professionals.

While many media reporters and storm chasers know how to stay safe in extreme weather, their coverage from ground zero in these life-threatening weather events can be detrimental. In some cases, it can glorify getting ‘in the thick of it’ and may downplay the threat these weather events pose to the general public.

One video from Wednesday shows a reporter being hit by a flying tree branch while standing in the middle of an unprotected street during a live update on Hurricane Ian. He then struggles to stand while being blasted by hurricane-force winds inside Ian’s eye wall.

Another video shows people reportedly swimming at Fort Myers in the dangerous storm surge and large waves created by Hurricane Ian.

When done safely, reporting and collecting data from the centre of a landfalling hurricane can be beneficial to science and society. But when safety is overlooked, it can be life-threatening.

One of the lighter media moments during Hurricane Ian came when a reporter used a condom to protect their microphone from the rain. At least this unintended moment of levity during a dangerous weather event put safety first.

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