Florida hurricane is once in 500-year flood event: Governor

Hurricane Ian, which peaked at a category four storm, is bringing severe flooding, high winds and storm surges to Florida.

It is now losing power as it moves inland, and has been downgraded to a category one system, reports BBC.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says the state is experiencing "a 500-year flood event" and warns of "historic" damages.

But more than two and a half million people have no electricity and cities have been left submerged by flood water.

Emergency crews are sawing through fallen trees to reach people who are trapped in their homes, while millions are without mobile service.

The hurricane made landfall on Wednesday near the city of Fort Myers.

President Joe Biden has declared a "major disaster" and approved federal disaster funds for nine counties in the state.

'Before I hid, I had to protect my husband'

Renee Smith, a resident of Punta Gorda, a small town in south-western Florida, has described the "terrifying" experience of surviving the hurricane.

She is a carer for her husband Christopher, who has advanced prostate cancer and is paralysed from the chest down.

Overcome with tears, she told the MSNBC news network that she had hidden under the kitchen table but "before I hid, I had to protect my husband".

She said she had tied him to his bed with blankets, and duct-taped pillows and plastic bags against the sideboard and windows.

She also put a life-jacket on him, "so that if the water came in, he wouldn't drown", she said.

Having lived through Hurricane Charley - the last storm to devastate the region - 18 years ago, Smith said Ian was far worse and lasted much longer.

She said: "Charley was less than an hour. The sun came out afterwards. There was no torrential rain."

Ian, by contrast, ripped her chimney off the roof. Smith said she was too afraid to even look outside.

She added that her husband had been due to have an operation this week, which she said could have helped him walk again, but it has now been postponed.