Hurricane Ian has been downgraded to a tropical storm.

In an 8am update on Thursday, the US National Hurricane Center said the storm was still “producing catastrophic flooding over east-central Florida, forecast to produce life-threatening storm surge and gusty winds across portions of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.“

On Wednesday afternoon, Ian was a category four hurricane and caused mass evacuation, damage to buildings, flooding and power outages in Florida.

But around 5 am on Thursday, it slowed down and became a tropical storm.

The hurricane centre said, “At 8 am, Tropical Storm Ian was located near latitude 28.5 north, longitude 80.7 west.

“Ian is moving toward the northeast near 13 km/h.

“On the forecast track, the centre of Ian is expected to move off the east-central coast of Florida soon and then approach the coast of South Carolina on Friday. The centre will move farther inland across the Carolinas Friday night and Saturday.”

It said maximum sustained winds remain near 100 km/h, with higher gusts.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis said the storm was one of the worst to hit southwest Florida.

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