By MEG KINNARD and REBECCA SANTANA
FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Rescuers looked for survivors among the many ruins of Florida’s flooded properties from Hurricane Ian whereas authorities in South Carolina started assessing 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 tens of millions 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 energy for a remaining assault on South Carolina. Now weakened to a post-tropical cyclone, Ian was anticipated to maneuver throughout North Carolina then into Virginia and New York.
At least 31 individuals had been confirmed lifeless, together with 27 individuals 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 mentioned.
Chris Schnapp was on the Port Sanibel Marina in Fort Myers on Saturday, ready to see whether or not her 83-year-old mother-in-law had been evacuated from Sanibel Island. A pontoon boat had simply arrived with a load of passengers from the island — with suitcases and animals in tow — however Schnapp’s mother-in-law was not amongst them.
“She stayed on the island. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law own two businesses over there. They evacuated. She did not want to go, thinking it wasn’t going to be bad,” Schnapp mentioned. But then she received phrase Friday night time that her mother-in-law can be arriving on the marina: “Now we don’t know if she’s still on the island or gotten on a bus,” and was taken to a shelter, Schnapp mentioned.
South Carolina’s Pawleys Island, a seashore neighborhood about 73 miles (117 kilometers) up the coast from Charleston, was among the many locations hardest hit by Ian, and energy remained knocked out to not less than half of the island Saturday.
Eddie Wilder, who has been coming to Pawleys Island for greater than six many years, mentioned Friday’s storm was “insane to watch.” He mentioned waves as excessive as 25 toes (7.6 meters) washed away the pier — an iconic landmark — simply two doorways down from his residence.
“We watched it hit the pier and saw the pier disappear,” mentioned Wilder, whose home sits about 30 toes (9 meters) above the ocean and stayed dry inside. “We watched it crumble and and watched it float by with an American flag still floating.”
The Pawleys pier was one in every of not less than 4 alongside South Carolina’s coast to be destroyed throughout Ian’s winds and rain. Portions of the pier, together with barnacle-covered pylons, littered the seashore. The intracoastal waterway was affected by the remnants of a number of boat homes torn aside and knocked off their pilings within the storm.
Traffic was shut off to Pawleys Island’s southernmost level, the place crews had been working to clear roadways of sand and different particles that officers mentioned has been piled not less than a foot excessive. The sand will later be redistributed to construct again the dunes alongside the seashore entrance, as occurred after comparable washing over in 2019.
Many of the elevated seashore properties nonetheless had toes of sand beneath, with dunes utterly washed over and practically flattened.
John Joseph, whose father constructed the household’s beige seashore home in 1962, mentioned Saturday that he was elated to return from Georgetown — which took a direct hit — to seek out his Pawleys Island residence completely intact.
“Thank God these walls are still here, and we feel very blessed that this is the worst thing,” he mentioned of the sand swept below his residence. “What occurred in Florida — gosh, God bless us. If we’d had a Category 4, I wouldn’t be right here.“
In North Carolina, the storm appeared to have primarily downed bushes and energy traces, leaving over 280,000 individuals throughout the state with out energy late Saturday morning, in line with state officers.
At least one fatality related to the storm was reported in Johnston County, exterior of Raleigh. A girl discovered her husband lifeless early Saturday after he went to examine on a generator working of their storage in a single day, sheriff’s workplace Capt. Jeff Caldwell mentioned.
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 only lived by way of.
Anthony Rivera, 25, mentioned he needed to climb by way of the window of his first ground Fort Myers condominium through the storm to hold his grandmother and girlfriend to the second ground. As they hurried to flee the rising water, the storm surge had washed a ship proper up subsequent to his condominium.
“That’s the scariest thing in the world because I can’t stop no boat,” he mentioned. “I’m not Superman.”
Other distraught residents waded by way 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 mentioned after shuffling by way of her largely destroyed Fort Myers condominium, the mud in her kitchen clinging to her purple sandals.
On Saturday, a protracted line of individuals waited exterior an O’Reilly’s auto elements retailer in Port Charlotte, the place an indication learn, “We have generators now.” Hundreds of automobiles had been lined up exterior a Wawa gasoline station, and a few individuals walked, carrying gasoline cans to their close by automobiles.
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Kinnard reported from Pawleys Island, South Carolina; Associated Press contributors embody 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”