By ADRIANA GOMEZ-LICON
PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (AP) — Rescue crews piloted boats and waded by way of flooded streets Thursday to avoid wasting 1000’s of Floridians trapped after Hurricane Ian destroyed properties and companies and left hundreds of thousands at the hours of darkness.
Hours after weakening to a tropical melancholy whereas crossing the Florida peninsula, Ian regained hurricane energy Thursday night after rising over the Atlantic Ocean. The National Hurricane Center predicted it will make landfall in South Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane Friday.
The devastation inflicted on Florida started to come back into focus a day after Ian struck as one of many strongest hurricanes ever to hit the U.S. The storm flooded properties on each the state’s coasts, reduce off the one bridge to a barrier island, destroyed a historic waterfront pier and knocked out electrical energy to 2.67 million Florida properties and companies — almost 1 / 4 of utility clients.
At least one man was confirmed useless in Florida, whereas two different folks had been reported killed in Cuba after the hurricane struck the island Tuesday.
Aerial pictures from the Fort Myers space, just a few miles west of the place Ian struck land, confirmed properties ripped from their slabs and deposited amongst shredded wreckage. Businesses close to the seaside had been fully razed, leaving simply twisted particles. Broken docks floated at odd angles beside broken boats, and fires smoldered on heaps the place homes as soon as stood.
“We’ve never seen storm surge of this magnitude,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis informed a information convention. “The amount of water that’s been rising, and will likely continue to rise today even as the storm is passing, is basically a 500-year flooding event.”
After leaving Florida as a tropical storm Thursday and coming into the Atlantic Ocean north of Cape Canaveral, Ian spun up right into a hurricane once more with winds of 75 mph (120 kph). The hurricane middle predicted it will proceed to strengthen earlier than hitting South Carolina on Friday, however nonetheless stay a Category 1 storm.
A hurricane warning was issued for the South Carolina coast and prolonged to Cape Fear on the southeastern coast of North Carolina. With tropical-storm drive winds reaching 415 miles (667 kilometers) from its middle, Ian was forecast to shove storm surge of 5 ft (1.5 meters) into coastal areas in Georgia and the Carolinas. Rainfall of as much as 8 inches (20.32 centimeters) threatened flooding from South Carolina to Virginia.
Sheriffs in southwest Florida mentioned 911 facilities had been inundated by 1000’s of stranded callers, some with life-threatening emergencies. The U.S. Coast Guard started rescue efforts hours earlier than dawn on barrier islands close to the place Ian struck, DeSantis mentioned. More than 800 members of federal city search-and-rescue groups had been additionally within the space.
In the Orlando space, Orange County firefighters used boats to succeed in folks in a flooded neighborhood. A photograph the division posted on Twitter confirmed one firefighter carrying somebody in his arms by way of knee-deep water. At an space nursing dwelling, sufferers had been carried on stretchers throughout floodwaters to a ready bus.
Among these rescued was Joseph Agboona. “We were happy to get out,” he mentioned after grabbing two baggage of possessions when water rose to the home windows in his Orlando dwelling. “It was very, very bad.”
In Fort Myers, Valerie Bartley’s household spent determined hours holding a eating room desk in opposition to their patio door, fearing the storm raging outdoors “was tearing our house apart.”
“I was terrified,” Bartley mentioned. “What we heard was the shingles and debris from everything in the neighborhood hitting our house.”
The storm ripped away patio screens and snapped a palm tree within the yard, Bartley mentioned, however left the roof intact and her household unhurt.
In Fort Myers, some folks left shelters to return dwelling Thursday afternoon. Long strains fashioned at fuel stations and a Home Depot opened, letting in just a few clients at a time.
Frank Pino was close to the again of the road, with about 100 folks in entrance of him.
“I hope they leave something,” Pino mentioned, “because I need almost everything.”
Authorities confirmed at the very least one Florida demise — a 72-year-old man in Deltona who fell right into a canal whereas utilizing a hose to empty his pool within the heavy rain, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office mentioned. Two different storm deaths had been reported in Cuba.
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno mentioned his workplace was scrambling to answer 1000’s of 911 calls within the Fort Myers space, however many roads and bridges had been impassable.
“We still cannot access many of the people that are in need,” Marceno informed ABC’s “Good Morning America.
Emergency crews sawed by way of toppled timber to succeed in stranded folks. Many within the hardest-hit areas had been unable to name for assist due to electrical and mobile outages.
Christine Bomlitz was unable to succeed in her mom by cellphone after the storm made landfall south of Englewood, the place the 84-year-old lady lives in a retirement group. Bomlitz mentioned her mom was speculated to evacuate however wasn’t picked up, so the anxious daughter from Las Vegas posted a plea for assistance on social media.
Some Good Samaritans got here to her support Thursday, one in all them wading in chest-deep floodwaters to carry out a welfare test. Relieved that her mom had weathered the storm, Bomlitz was working to rearrange a ship rescue.
“I’m thankful for this stranger, a total stranger,” Bomlitz mentioned.
A bit of the Sanibel Causeway fell into the ocean, reducing off entry to the barrier island the place 6,300 folks dwell. It was unknown what number of heeded orders to evacuate, however Charlotte County Emergency Management Director Patrick Fuller expressed cautious optimism.
No deaths or accidents have been confirmed within the county, and flyovers of barrier islands present “the integrity of the homes is far better than we anticipated,” Fuller mentioned.
South of Sanibel Island, the historic beachfront pier in Naples was destroyed, with even the pilings beneath torn out. “Right now, there is no pier,” mentioned Penny Taylor, a Collier County commissioner.
In Port Charlotte, a hospital’s emergency room flooded and fierce winds ripped away a part of the roof, sending water gushing into the intensive care unit. The sickest sufferers — some on ventilators — had been crowded into the center two flooring because the employees ready for storm victims to reach, mentioned Dr. Birgit Bodine of HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital.
Ian struck Florida as a monstrous Category 4 storm, with 150 mph (241 kph) winds that tied it for the fifth-strongest hurricane ever to hit the U.S.
While scientists typically keep away from blaming local weather change for particular storms with out detailed evaluation, Ian’s watery destruction matches what scientists have predicted for a hotter world: stronger and wetter hurricanes, although not essentially extra of them.
“This business about very, very heavy rain is something we’ve expected to see because of climate change,” mentioned MIT atmospheric scientist Kerry Emanuel. “We’ll see more storms like Ian.”
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Associated Press contributors embody Terry Spencer and Tim Reynolds in Fort Myers; Cody Jackson in Tampa, Florida; Freida Frisaro in Miami; Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida; Seth Borenstein in Washington; and Bobby Caina Calvan in New York.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”