WASHINGTON -- (Xinhua) -- Hurricane Ian continued to lash the Florida peninsula with catastrophic storms, winds and floods on Wednesday night, leaving nearly two million customers out of power.

A public release from the US National Hurricane Center said Hurricane Ian, which made landfall in southwest Florida in the afternoon as a Category 4 hurricane, has now weakened with sustained winds of 185 km/h.

The center of the storm is expected to move across central Florida Wednesday night and Thursday morning and blow over the western Atlantic Ocean by late Thursday.
Hurricane Ian is also expected to move north on Friday and approach the coasts of northeastern Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis urged residents of the state to "exercise caution when going outside."

"Avoid downed power lines, avoid standing water, stay out of trees, avoid driving in standing water, and keep generators 20 feet from your homes," DeSantis tweeted.

As of Wednesday night, nearly 2 million customers in Florida were without power due to the impact of the devastating storm, according to PowerOutage.us.