Speaking alongside the governor, Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie asked the public not to take out their own boats to attempt to rescue stranded neighbours.

He said the risk was still too high for untrained Floridians to set out on the water on their own.

Governor Ron DeSantis added that the informal volunteer group known as the Cajun Navy was currently en route to Florida to help with rescue-and-recovery operations.

"Those are some really battle-hardened folks," he said, noting their experience tackling flooding in Louisiana.

"We really welcome them to the state of Florida," DeSantis said, adding: "There's going to be a lot of need to get into these communities in south-west Florida."

Image source, Reuters

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says that emergency officials, including 7,000 National Guard troops, are preparing to lead rescue operations into flood zones once the immediate danger of the storm passes.

Inland counties, including ones that are over 100 miles from the coast, have also called for evacuations due to storm surge flooding

At a news conference in the city of Tallahassee, DeSantis said that the state currently has available almost 250 aircrafts, 1,600 high water vehicles and 300 boats.

"With water this high, these operations might need to be waterborne operations," he said, noting that central Naples had flooded.

Rescuers, he said, "are prepared for a lot of different eventualities".

The Republican governor also thanked other US states for sending resources to Florida to help in its preparations and recovery.

In a news briefing, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has just said the hurricane is causing structural damage in south-west Florida.

He said Ian has battered the region, but that storm surge waters appear to have peaked already.

He added that emergency 911 calls in three counties are being diverted to other regions as their phone connections are down.

He added that people who chose not to leave, despite being in the high risk Zone A coastal regions, might not be rescued until the storm has fully passed.

Image source, Getty Images

There have been more than 2,140 flight cancellations within, into or out of the US today, according to the website Flightaware, external.

Several airports in Florida have closed in anticipation of Hurricane Ian, disrupting travel for many passengers. These include:

• Melbourne Orlando International Airport
• Orlando International Airport
• Sarasota Bradenton International Airport
• Southwest Florida International Airport
• St Pete-Clearwater International Airport
• Tampa International Airport

The worst-affected airports in Florida are Orlando with 386 cancellations, Miami at 216 flights called off and Tampa which has 178 planes grounded.

More than 3,500 flights have also been cancelled for Wednesday and Thursday in the US.

Major airlines are waiving fees for affected travellers.

Image source, Getty Images

Five cruise ships carrying thousands of passengers have reportedly had their trips extended or re-routed amid port closures caused by Hurricane Ian.

Three of Florida's busiest ports - Port Tampa Bay, Port Canaveral and Jackson Port Authority - have been closed as Ian pounds Florida.

Among the ships is the Carnival Paradise, which was originally due to return to Port Tampa Bay this week, but instead docked overnight in Cozumel, Mexico.

Matt Lupoli, a spokesman for Carnival Cruise Line, was quoted by the Tampa Bay Times as saying that the ship would depart Cozumel later on Wednesday and head to Tampa, but would remain "a safe distance" from the storm.

Carnival Elation, which left Jacksonville on Saturday, has changed its route and will remain at sea until the port reopens, according to CBS.

Three other ships - Royal Caribbean's Manner of the Seas, Norwegian Getaway and MSC Divina - were all due back in ports on Thursday, but will reportedly remain at sea for longer than anticipated.

Image source, Getty Images

Over one millions Floridians are currently without electricity, according to tracker PowerOutages.us.

As of right now, some 1,079,004 Florida residents and businesses have no power, according to the website.

In four of the affected Florida counties, over 60% of customers have lost power.

Officials have warned of power outages due to downed power lines, and caution that the blackouts will continue until recovery operations can begin after the hurricane passes.

Police in Marco Island said the storm had already dumped about 2.5ft (76cm) of water in parts of the town.

Marco Island is a barrier island in south-west Florida, connected by bridges to the city of Naples on the mainland.

Those who live in the Northwest Pacific - near the coast of Vietnam, the Philippines and Taiwan - might be more familiar with the term typhoon to describe an intense tropical storm.

Typhoons and hurricanes are essentially the same thing - both feature a rotating system of clouds and thunderstorms that is spawned over tropical waters.

The only difference between the two is where they happen.

The term hurricane refers to tropical cyclones that occur in the North Atlantic Ocean and central and eastern North Pacific Ocean.

Typhoons, on the other hand, are what we call tropical cyclones that occur in the Northwest Pacific.

The US Border Patrol and Coast Guard are looking for more than 20 missing migrants after their ship sank during the storm.

Walter Slosar, Border Patrol Miami's chief patrol officer, said his officers had been alerted alongside local police to a landing of four migrants in Stock Island.

In a tweet, external, he said the four had "swam to shore after their vessel sank due to inclement weather".

The discovery prompted the launch of a search-and-rescue operation to find another 23 people believed to have been on board.

On Tuesday, seven Cuban migrants were taken into custody after reaching the US mainland at nearby Pompano Beach.

"Do not risk your life by attempting this journey at sea," Slosar said in a separate tweet.

Satellite imagery released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows repeated flashes of lightning around the eye of the storm as Hurricane Ian strengthened over the Gulf of Mexico.

Ian has just made landfall on the southwestern Florida coast.

The National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Ian has officially made landfall in south-western Florida as an "extremely dangerous" category four hurricane at 15:10 local time (20:10 GMT).

Rafael Abuchaibe
Reporting from Miami Beach

Some curious locals and visitors in the touristy South Beach paid little attention to the warnings of tropical storm conditions caused by the passing of Hurricane Ian, which as of now - as it nears landfall near the central Florida city of Tampa - remains a category 4 storm.

Despite being fairly distant from the storm’s main path, the three most populous counties in Florida - Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach - are feeling the effects of the powerful winds, which last night translated in tornadoes that affected the city of West Miami Dade and a local airport in Broward.

Photographs that circulated on social media showed that the tornado that passed over North Perry Airport, in Pembroke Pines, west of Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday night, had destroyed several single-engine aircrafts in its path.

There were no reports of injuries or fatalities, and according to Florida Power and Light (FPL), the state’s power company, little over 18.000 users had no electricity in Miami-Dade, almost 8.000 in Broward and 5.200 in Palm Beach.

Ian also led local authorities in Miami-Dade and Broward counties to announce the closure of schools and "non-essential" services such as libraries and parks throughout Wednesday and Thursday.

Image source, NOAA/Getty

There is a lot of focus on the ground about the impact Hurricane Ian has had in Cuba and is expected to make throughout Florida - but what is the view from above?

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Aircraft Operations Center has shared some of its satellite images showing the hurricane's progress over the last few days.

Image source, NOAA

Image source, NASA/Getty

Image source, NOAA/Getty

As areas on Florida's western coast feel the direct impact of Hurricane Ian, regions outside of the storm's direct path are bracing for possible tornadoes.

A tornado watch has been issued by the US National Weather Service until 17:00 local time (22:00 GMT) for a large area in east central Florida.

There is an enhanced risk in particular of tornadoes hitting Daytona Beach, Orlando and West Palm Beach on the eastern side of the peninsula.

Governor Ron DeSantis has tweeted that the hurricane is making landfall now, though the National Hurricane Center's 14:00 local time update says it will make landfall "soon".

The hurricane has been battering Florida's coastline for hours, with the eyewall of the storm reaching the coast just over an hour ago.

It's time for our top of the hour update. Here's the latest on the storm.

• Hurricane Ian has hit Florida's coast on Sanibel and Captiva Islands, causing a dramatic storm surge in the area, which is under an evacuation order
• The hurricane is now about 35 miles (80 km) southwest of Fort Myers
• The US National Weather Service has issued an extreme wind warning for Englewood, Rotonda and Grove City, near where the eyewall has moved onshore, until 14:00 local time (18:00 GMT)
• Nearly 300,000 people in Florida are now without power
• Officials say at least 15 hospitals and 40 nursing homes have been evacuated
• A flood warning is also in effect for east central Florida until 16:00 local time
• Ian's maximum sustained wind speed remains at a high 155 mph (250 kmh)

US meteorologist Reed Timmer has been sharing pictures from Pine Island - an island off of Florida's Gulf Coast which is under a mandatory evacuation order.

Timmer said the eye of the storm will bring powerful winds and storm surge of up to 15 feet to the area.

He said Ian, now a Category 4 storm, is rapidly approaching Category 5 intensity.

As Hurricane Ian moves further into Florida, forecasters are predicting an "absolutely catastrophic" storm surge in cities like Fort Myers and Punta Gorda.