Dicing with death: Desperate selfie-takers gamble against 60mph winds as Hurricane Ian hits

Selfie-takers desperate for the photo are terrified as they wade on the pounding waves of Hurricane Ian along Florida’s Key West pier.

Video shows people — including children — braving choppy waters armed with camera phones and selfie sticks as 60-mph gusts pounded the keys.

The reckless snappers “do it for the “gram” — doing things for the sole purpose of posting it on Instagram — even as local police urged residents to stay indoors and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis warned residents in the path of the hurricane that ‘now is your last chance to evacuate.’

The Key West Police Department warned it was not safe to go outside and lives are threatened by standing water that can be electrified by downed power lines.

Separate video showed palm trees being tied down by high winds and homes without electricity up to two feet under water in Key West.

Ian will make landfall in Charlotte County on Florida’s southwest coast, state governor Ron DeSantis said this morning, possibly as a Category five storm.

Ian, which was only recently upgraded to a catastrophic Category 4 hurricane, has generated wind speeds of 250 km/h, just below the strength of Category 5, according to the US National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Couple pose together for a selfie in dangerously stormy conditions along Florida’s Key West pier

A couple armed with a selfie stick smile as they ‘do it for the gram’ and defy police warnings to stay indoors

Previous estimates of top wind speeds of 130 mph have now been far exceeded. The hurricane is centered about 75 miles west-southwest of Naples, Florida and is moving north at a forward speed of 10 mph (17 kph), she added.

The major hurricane has triggered warnings of deadly winds and flooding and a possible storm surge that could reach 16 feet along the state’s densely populated Gulf Coast, from Bonita Beach to the Tampa Bay region.

Florida residents rushed to board up their homes, hide valuable possessions on the upper floors, and flee.

Two people were rushed to hospital on Tuesday evening after a tornado hit an over-55s apartment building in Kings Point, Delray Beach.

Large trees were thrown to the ground as parts of the building were completely torn up and lifted, and residents were evacuated when the tornado struck.

Another tornado hit Southeast Florida, with rain pouring down and footage showing a parking lot nearly submerged as palm trees sway in the high winds.

Damage is expected to reach $45 billion as the storm continues to grow in strength as more than two million Floridians have been urged to evacuate.

Satellite images show Hurricane Ian starting to make landfall over southwest Florida after slamming into Cuba. Recent data indicates Ian is rapidly intensifying with maximum sustained winds now up to 155 mph

These two satellite images show Hurricane Ian’s progress as it passes Cuba on its way to Florida’s west coast

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that at least two “radar-indicated tornadoes” were already in the state, warning those in areas expected to be hardest hit that their “time to evacuate” is coming to an end. ‘.

“You must evacuate now. You will start to feel major effects of this storm relatively soon,” he said.

The major hurricane has raised warnings of a potentially dangerous storm surge that could reach 12 feet, deadly winds and flooding along the state’s densely populated Gulf Coast from Bonita Beach to the Tampa Bay region. Florida residents rushed to board up their homes, hide valuable possessions on the upper floors, and flee.

More than 17,000 people in Florida were without power in Florida on Wednesday morning, even before Hurricane Ian made landfall.

The Florida Power and Light Company reported 17,255 outages in several Florida counties, NBC News reports. There were more than 6,700 outages in Broward, while there were 5,700 outages in Miami-Dade.

DeSantis, who declared a state of emergency across the state on Sunday, has 30,000 workers on hand to help should Florida’s power grid inevitably topple in Ian’s wrath.

“It’s a big storm, it’s going to raise a lot of water as it comes in,” DeSantis said at a news conference in Sarasota, a coastal town of 57,000 in the storm’s projected path. He warned, “This is the kind of storm surge that is life-threatening.”

A man runs away from the beach before Category Four Hurricane Ian makes landfall in Fort Myers, Florida

News reporters film a final broadcast before the final evacuations as the potential Category 5 storm approaches

The Florida governor warned residents to prepare for the impact, especially those in West Coast mobile homes, which may be designed for Category 3 hurricanes and 100mph winds, but may not withstand what’s to come.

“You’ve got in southwest Florida, basically all over the state, but really in the communities that could be affected by the initial impact of the eye of the storm, you’ve got a lot of mobile homes,” DeSantis said.

“You’ve got people, and the way that’s done, they can even withstand winds of 100 miles per hour, maybe 110 to get certified.

Expect heavy rains, high winds, flash floods, storm surge and even isolated tornadoes. Prepare now,” he said, adding that residents should anticipate power outages, fuel outages and even evacuations in certain areas.

The announcement came after DeSantis previously declared a state of emergency in 24 counties in his home state, with President Biden invoking his own emergency edict for the state of Everglades over the weekend, delaying the planned trip to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.

Those orders have so far ordered about 2.5 million Floridians to evacuate their homes as officials rush to prepare for the storm’s now-inevitable landfall in the U.S. — taking the situation in Cuba as a stark warning. for what may come.