Although Ian made landfall in Florida on Wednesday as a Category 4 hurricane, it's already making the impact of a Category 5 event -- which is rare in the United States, meteorologists say.
While the state is just starting to dig out from the massive storm, officials are already predicting a large death toll.
"Fatalities are in the hundreds," Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno told Good Morning America on Thursday. "This is a life-changing event for all of us."
Marceno added that there are confirmed deaths, but he didn't yet know the exact number. In Volusia County, authorities said one person has been confirmed dead: a 72-year-old man who went outside to drain his pool in Deltona near Daytona Beach and was swept away, ABC News reported. He was found dead in a canal behind the house.
Marceno described Lee County -- which bore the brunt of the storm and includes the cities of Fort Meyers, Cape Coral, Estero, Sanibel and others -- as being "crushed," with many people trapped. He said they have thousands of 911 calls that they are still answering.
"We still cannot access many of the people that are in need," Marceno told GMA. "It's a real, real rough road ahead."
Just two hours after Ian arrived, its winds had increased to a maximum of 155 miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center. That puts it just two shy of the 157 miles per hour needed to give it a Category 5 designation.
Video taken during the hurricane's first two hours in Florida shows trees and traffic signs being uprooted; torrents of rushing floodwater that washed away vehicles; and downed power lines emitting electrical sparks as it comes into contact with the water-logged streets.
As of 6 a.m. Thursday, more than 2 million customers are without power, according to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. He said Charlotte and Lee counties are "basically off the grid at this point" and will likely need a rebuilding of their infrastructure, according to ABC News.
"The impacts of this storm are historic and the damage that was done has been historic and this is just off initial assessments. There's going to be a lot more assessing that goes on in the days ahead," DeSantis said. "We've never seen a flood event like this. We've never seen storm surge of this magnitude and it hit an area where there's a lot of people in a lot of those low-lying areas and it's going to end up doing extensive damage to a lot of people's homes."
Ian was downgraded to a tropical storm Thursday morning. It is expected to move across central Florida and emerge into the Atlantic later in the day. The storm is forecast to produce life-threatening flooding, storm surge and gusty winds across portions of Georgia and the Carolinas.
Maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 75 mph with higher gusts. Further weakening is expected for the next day or so, but Ian could be near hurricane strength again when it approaches the northeastern Florida, Georgia and South Carolina coasts on Friday, meteorologists say.
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