Hurricane Ian latest update: Tropical storm regains strength as category one

After spending most of Thursday as a tropical storm, Ian was upgraded to a hurricane again as it takes aim at the South Carolina coastline.

The National Hurricane Center stated in its 5pm ET update that Hurricane Ian was “taking aim at the Carolinas and Georgia with life-threatening flooding, storm surge and strong winds.”

The hurricane is now moving north-northwest at around 10 mph with maximum sustained winds increasing to 75 mph with strong gusts.

“Ian could slightly strengthen before landfall tomorrow, and is forecast to rapidly weaken over the southeastern United States late Friday into Saturday,” the advisory said.

Dozens of rescue operations have been taking place across Florida after unprecedented flooding from one of the most powerful hurricanes ever recorded in the United States.

Thousands of people are stranded across the state as coastguard helicopters were seen plucking people from roofs after several feet of water surged into neighorboods. Some 2.5million people were currently without power.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis described the hurricane as a “500-year flood event” and said that major infrastructure had been badly damaged including the Sanibel Causeway in southwest Florida and the bridge to Pine Island, near Fort Myers.

President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in Florida following the catastrophic impacts. “This could be the deadliest hurricane in Florida history,” he said later during a briefing at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters.