Hurricane Ian bring tornadoes, tropical storm force winds, flooding to South Florida

Hurricane Ian’s power has been lashing South Florida with bands of intense weather since late Tuesday.

The storm spawned at least two tornadoes in Broward County on Tuesday night, the National Weather Service said. The tornadoes followed similar paths over Weston, Sunrise, Davie, Cooper City, Hollywood and Pembroke Pines.

At Kings Point west of Delray Beach, a tornado touchdown left two hospitalized and another 35 people displaced, said Capt. Tom Reyes, a spokesperson for Palm Beach County Fire Rescue.

Across the canal from King’s Point, Lesley and Jerry Silverman were at their neighbors’ house in Floral Lakes, playing cards.

”It was a good thing to do on a lousy night,” Lesley Silverman said. “Then we heard this noise, this really horrible noise.” She described it as thunder growing louder and louder, with debris hitting windows.

[ RELATED: Hurricane Ian coming ashore as near-Category 5 monster; top storm surge estimate goes to 18 feet ]

When the roar subsided, they looked outside. A car fender lay on the grass. They met their daughter, Emilee, back at their own house, where fire rescue crews worked to cut trees so residents could get into their houses. Across the canal, they could see damaged homes.

”You can see inside the pantry of one of the apartments over there,” said Lesley Silverman.

At North Perry Airport, several aircraft and hangars were damaged in a tornado in Pembroke Pines, said Arlene Satchell, spokesperson for the airport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

A tornado watch continues until 5 p.m. Wednesday across South Florida.

National Weather Service meteorologist Anthony Reynes said that tropical bands can produce wind gusts up to 40 or 50 mph, and take down trees.

Hollywood resident Gary Adams heard a boom outside his house Tuesday night, and the sound of something rolling across his roof. “Then I heard clink-clanking around on the patio out there as the chairs were falling around. I looked at my wife and said, ‘what the hell was that?’ … I came through the garage door and looked out the window into the street and said ‘That tree does not belong there.’”

The entirety of the region can expect tropical-storm conditions Wednesday, the weather service’s update said. Major flooding from rain is possible across the region through Thursday morning, along with the possibility of tornadoes through Wednesday.

“The storm is moving very slowly, so conditions are not going to get better any time soon,” Reynes said. “It’s going to take all day and all night. We can expect rain bands on and off and some of them can have wind gust up to tropical-storm force. The showers that move slowly can become a potential for localize flooding in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade Counties.”

The high winds are most likely to last through Thursday afternoon in Palm Beach County and from Wednesday morning to before dawn Thursday in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 40 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 175 miles.

The storm’s cone of possibility — the area over which the storm’s center could track — passes just north of Lake Okeechobee. Western sections of Palm Beach County have an 80% or higher chance of tropical-storm-force winds on Wednesday, while eastern sections, as well as Broward County have a 60% to 80% chance.

On Tuesday, Commissioner Melissa McKinlay, who represents western Palm Beach County, including the Glades area, said a dike rehab project around Lake Okeechobee has resulted in major improvements in flood resilience.

“We’ve been in touch with the Army Corps of Engineers. They assure us that the dike is in the best position it’s been in decades,” she said, adding that the lake is about 2½ feet below where it normally is at this time of year, “so there’s plenty of storage space available in the lake.”

[ RELATED: South Florida policyholders will have to pay if Florida’s insurers can’t cover Ian’s destruction ]

Florida Power and Light’s website indicates that there were some 11,360 customers without power in Broward County Wednesday at noon, with an additional 8,090 customers without power in Palm Beach County.

Tri-county area schools were closed on Wednesday, and all three counties will close schools on Thursday as well.

Many Floridians evacuating the west coast have headed east.

At a news conference on Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke about evacuations and suggested evacuees consider heading to South Florida. “Go south across Alligator Alley,” he said. “South Florida is doing better.”

Matt Denson, general manager of the boutique 19-room Snooze Hotel on North Fort Lauderdale Beach Boulevard said that the hotel has seen a significant uptick in bookings because of this storm.

“It’s very strange,” he said. “I’ve been through several storms over the decades, and I’ve never had this much fluctuation in reservations. I’ve had 15 cancellations between today and yesterday and 14 pickups. That’s amazing pickup. I’ve got one oceanfront suite left to sell.”

This is normally the slowest time of year for Fort Lauderdale hotels, he said, but “this is the most occupied I’ve been, considering there are 50 mph winds right outside my door.”

Morning king tides combined with heavy rains on Tuesday to cause street flooding in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Similar flooding is expected on Wednesday.

Staff writers Shira Moolten and Amy Beth Bennett contributed to this report.