Hear first-hand reports from former El Paso meteorologist in Fort Myers
EL PASO, Texas - Far, far away from the destructive category 4 Hurricane Ian, the Borderland is experiencing nice, dry weather this week. Wednesday morning, Hurricane Ian made landfall on the verge of category 5 strength. Around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, the maximum sustained winds were a whopping 155 mph. If the winds reach had been at 157 mph, Ian would've become a category 5 hurricane.
However, the damage of a category 3 or 4 hurricane compared to a category 5 is not all that different. Sure, there will be greater impacts with stronger winds, but whichever way you look at it, widespread damage will come out of the storm. On Thursday, we are seeing catastrophic damage coming out of Fort Myers, Cape Coral, and the central southwest part of Florida.
A former KVIA Meteorologist, Kyle Hanson, just scored a weather position in Tampa and moved there about a week before Ian. As the track was headed towards Tampa for a while, he decided to drive south to avoid the storm in the Fort Myers area, where, unfortunately, the storm had a direct impact. Hanson spoke with us at ABC-7 to give us a first-hand account of what he experienced in this storm.
"Even 5 miles, maybe not even 5 miles down the road, it was still well inland there was some storm surge going up the river there. And on my way back, me and my friend saw bodies being pulled out just about 5 miles down the road, which is kind of a scary thing to see considering you just rode out the storm 5 minutes away," Hanson shared.
Hanson was referring to deceased bodies in white body bags. Hanson has experienced hurricanes such as Sally and Irene, but says this is one of the worst he's ever experienced.
"I would say this was arguably even worse because it was just as slow as Hurricane Sally because the winds were much worse, the storm surge was worse, and unfortunately it looks like the death toll will be even higher with this [storm]."
Hanson told me he is asking those of us in the Borderland to keep southwest Florida in mind over the weeks to come, as it will be a long road to recovery. If you are interested in helping the disaster relief fund for Floridians impacted by the hurricane, you should click here.
