Florida man wakeboards through flooded street as Hurricane Ian nears

Social media users have taken action after a Florida man was filmed wakeboarding through the streets in the fast approaching Hurricane Ian.

The video, shared to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon, shows a man in a long-sleeved shirt and shorts wakeboarding behind a pickup truck as it drives through the flooded streets of Marathon in the Florida Keys a day before until Hurricane Ian reaches the southern part of the state. portion. The 25-second clip, which was uploaded by the Twitter user Ben Brahler and received more than 161,000 views, was considered by some to be typical Florida behavior in the face of what could be one of the worst hurricanes the state has ever seen.

“Nothing is more American than that!” a user wrote in answer.

“Floridians keep shocking me,” another netizen added.

Meanwhile, journalist Heidi Moore Noted “This water is not clean.”

“If you look closely, you can see that the nearby golf course has its sprinklers in place to ensure top-level playing conditions,” Brahler said. added in a follow-up tweet.

8 p.m. Hurricane Update

According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), tropical-force winds reached the southwest tip of Florida on Tuesday around 8 p.m. local time, and heavy rainfall is expected across much of the peninsula for the next few days. .

The NHC predicts rainfall could reach 6 to 8 inches in the Florida Keys and southern Florida by Thursday, while central and northeast Florida could see isolated totals of up to 24 inches. . Eastern Georgia and coastal South Carolina could also receive between 4 and 8 inches of rain.

As of Tuesday evening, hurricane wind speeds recorded by the NHC had peaked at 120 mph.

The NHC also warned residents that a combination of storm surge from Hurricane Ian alone with large waves would cause flooding in normally dry areas near Florida’s west coast Tuesday night. Areas of Sarasota County could see flooding of 6 to 12 feet.

Hurricane Ian upgraded to a Category 3 storm overnight after hitting western Cuba around 4:30 a.m., reaching speeds of up to 200 km/h, according to NBC News.

The NHC said the hurricane is expected to reach west Florida near Sarasota on Wednesday afternoon and move northeast through central Florida, passing Tampa on Thursday.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said 2.5 million Florida residents evacuated their homes in preparation for Hurricane Ian on Tuesday morning. Several counties in line with the hurricane’s predicted path ordered mandatory evacuations for residents Monday and Tuesday, along with several areas under voluntary evacuations. Mandatory evacuations for coastal areas of Hillsborough County, which includes the city of Tampa, began Monday.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff warned Tuesday that help will not come to residents who have not followed mandatory evacuation orders, which gave residents of the most flood-prone areas until 9 p.m. to leave the area.

Newsweek contacted the NHC for comment.