The passage of Hurricane Ian through Florida left a path of destruction, especially in the southwest and center of this southern state, where there are more than 2.5 million people without electricity, thousands of residents are still trapped in their homes flooded with water and some roads are impassable.
“It crushed us”, Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno confessed to the ABC program “Good Morning America”, who announced that the deaths will be counted by “hundreds”, a statement that was later softened by the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, who referred to the possible deaths.
DeSantis, in a press conference in Tallahassee, said that fatalities are expected, but he clarified that it will take a few days to offer official figures of deaths.
“Relatively soon we will confirm figures,” he said, after clarifying that one of the reasons why official data on deaths is not given is becausethere is still no access to health centers, some completely flooded.
Several US media such as CNN do offer figures of possible deaths and point to a number close to 15, based on interviews with local authorities.
Possible fatalities
In Charlotte County, where the town of Punta Gorda is located, there were “at least eight or nine deaths,” CNN said, citing a local official, Commissioner (Councilman) Joseph Tiseo.
It is also “believed” that about five people died in Lee County, adjoining Charlotte and where Fort Myers is located, where it appears from the images that the greatest floods and home losses occurred.
The latest data provided by DeSantis places 2.6 million customers without electricity throughout Florida, while thousands of people work in rescue work.
In Lee County, where the Fort Myers and the Ian impact zone, roads and bridges remain impassable, keeping thousands of people trapped in their homes, and those who have not lost connection call the emergency phone for help 911, some of which are being rescued by helicopters.
The elevated highway that connects Fort Myers to Sanibel Island, home to more than 6, people, has been split in two and with several sections destroyed due to the impact of Ian, which was downgraded to a tropical storm to later return to category of a hurricane threatening the states of Georgia and both Carolinas.
Among the affected infrastructures is the Sarasota airport, which this Thursday remains closed and will not be operational until Friday afternoon or Saturday, then that the wind and heavy rains destroyed a roof in one of its terminals, as reported by its executive director, Rick Piccolo, to the local channel FOX 13
Disaster Area
President Joe Biden approved a disaster area declaration for nine Florida counties affected by Hurricane Ian, which will increase the federal aid to alleviate its effects, as promised to DeSantis.
The federal government had sent to this state prior to Ian’s arrival more than 1,300 lifeguards, who work in coordination with 5, 000 members of the Florida National Guard .
Product of the coordination between the federal and state administration, more than 32 ,000 workers are available to restore electricity from this Thursday in Florida, where have opened almost 215 shelters that have received more than 10,10 people, as reported during the day by the government’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The top executive of this federal agency, Deanne Criswell, will inform Biden about the situation and will travel to the area on Friday to monitor the response given and assess whether it is necessary to provide further assistance.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) bulletin indicates that Ian is headed for the states of North and South Carolina and Georgia with maximum sustained winds of 74.5 mph, which narrowly keeps it a Category 1 hurricane within a 5-tier classification .
The NHC expects flooding, storm surge and high winds upon Ian’s arrival in those US East Coast states.
At the time of issue the bulletin Ian was located 215 miles from Charleston, South Carolina.
Ian’s center touched landfall Wednesday afternoon near Cayo Costa, an island across from the city of Fort Myers, with maximum sustained winds of 74 mph, that is, as a category 4 hurricane.
According to US meteorologists, Ian is the fifth most powerful hurricane to hit this territory in its history.
Also read:
- Hurricane Ian: how the disaster affected the price of gasoline in the US USA911
- Hurricane Ian will make landfall in South Carolina this Friday after devastating impact in Florida
- Hurricane Ian left at least 15 dead in Florida