By MEG KINNARD and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Rescuers looked for survivors among the many ruins of Florida’s flooded properties from Hurricane Ian whereas authorities in South Carolina waited for daylight to evaluate injury from its strike there because the remnants of one of many strongest and costliest hurricanes to ever hit the U.S. continued to push north.
The highly effective storm terrorized hundreds of thousands of individuals for many of the week, battering western Cuba earlier than raking throughout Florida from the nice and cozy waters of the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean, the place it mustered sufficient power for a last assault on South Carolina. Now weakened to a post-tropical cyclone, Ian was anticipated to maneuver throughout central North Carolina on Saturday morning and attain south-central Virginia by the afternoon.
At least 30 folks had been confirmed useless, together with 27 folks in Florida largely from drowning however others from the storm’s tragic aftereffects. An aged couple died after their oxygen machines shut off once they misplaced energy, authorities stated.
Meanwhile, distraught residents waded by means of knee-high water Friday, salvaging what possessions they may from their flooded properties and loading them onto rafts and canoes.
“I want to sit in the corner and cry. I don’t know what else to do,” Stevie Scuderi stated after shuffling by means of her largely destroyed Fort Myers house, the mud in her kitchen clinging to her purple sandals.
In South Carolina, Ian’s middle got here ashore close to Georgetown, a small group alongside the Winyah Bay about 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of historic Charleston. The storm washed away components of 4 piers alongside the coast, together with two related to the favored vacationer city of Myrtle Beach.
The storm’s winds had been a lot weaker Friday than throughout Ian’s landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast earlier within the week. Authorities and volunteers there have been nonetheless assessing the injury as shocked residents tried to make sense of what they simply lived by means of.
Anthony Rivera, 25, stated he needed to climb by means of the window of his first flooring house in the course of the storm to hold his grandmother and girlfriend to the second flooring. As they hurried to flee the rising water, the storm surge had washed a ship proper up subsequent to his house.
“That’s the scariest thing in the world because I can’t stop no boat,” he stated. “I’m not Superman.”
Even although Ian has lengthy handed over Florida, new issues continued to come up. A 14-mile (22-kilometer) stretch of Interstate 75 was closed late Friday in each instructions within the Port Charlotte space due to the huge mount of water swelling the Myakka River.
Ross Giarratana, a meteorologist on the National Weather Service in Tampa, stated the Myakka was cresting at a document 12.73 ft (3.88 meters) Saturday morning.
Further southeast, the Peace River was additionally at a serious flood stage early Saturday in Polk, Hardee and DeSoto counties. The majority of these factors haven’t but crested, Giarratana stated.
“It was crazy to look at just how quickly the rivers were rising,’ he said. “We knew that we were in for some record stuff.”
The official loss of life toll climbed all through the day Friday, with authorities warning it could possible rise a lot larger as soon as crews made a extra complete sweep of the injury. Searches had been aimed toward emergency rescues and preliminary assessments, Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie stated. He described one submerged residence for example.
“The water was up over the rooftop, right, but we had a Coast Guard rescue swimmer swim down into it and he could identify that it appeared to be human remains. We do not know exactly how many,” Guthrie stated.
The useless included a 68-year-old lady swept into the ocean by a wave and a 67-year-old man who who fell into rising water inside his residence whereas awaiting rescue.
Authorities additionally stated a 22-year-old lady died after an ATV rollover from a highway washout and a 71-year-old man suffered a deadly fall from a rooftop whereas placing up rain shutters. Another three folks died in Cuba earlier within the week.
Hurricane Ian has possible precipitated “effectively over $100 billion’ in injury, together with $63 billion in privately insured losses, in accordance with the catastrophe modeling agency Karen Clark & Co., which often points flash disaster estimates. If these numbers are borne out, that may make Ian no less than the fourth costliest hurricane in U.S. historical past.
In the Sarasota suburb of North Point, Florida, residents of the Country Club Ridge subdivision waded by means of waterlogged streets Friday. John Chihil solemnly towed a canoe and one other small boat by means of the ankle-deep water.
“There’s really not much to feel. It’s an act of God, you know?” he stated. “I mean, that’s all you can do is pray and hope for a better day tomorrow.”
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Gomez Licon reported from Punta Gorda, Florida; Associated Press contributors embrace Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida; Terry Spencer and Tim Reynolds in Fort Myers, Florida; Cody Jackson in Tampa, Florida; Freida Frisaro in Miami; Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida; Daniel Kozin in North Port, Florida; Seth Borenstein in Washington; Bobby Caina Calvan in New York; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”