Hurricane Ian lashes southern Florida

Hurricane Ian brought high winds, heavy rains, storm surges and intense flooding to Florida on Wednesday, making landfall in the afternoon and moving inland through the evening. 

Officials were preparing a major emergency response to help those affected by the storm. Around 1.8 million homes were without power on Wednesday evening according to tracking websites. 

The hurricane, a Category 4 storm out of a possible 5 on the Saffir Simpson scale upon arrival, made landfall near the city of…