By ADRIANA GOMEZ-LICON
PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Ian destroyed a cross-section of Florida, trapping folks in flooded properties, forcing sufferers from nursing properties and hospitals, slicing off a well-liked barrier island and obliterating a historic waterfront pier. Nearly 2.7 million folks misplaced energy as rain fell and waters rose.
Floodwaters rose waist-high close to Orlando, far inland, as one of many strongest hurricanes to ever hit the United States crossed the peninsula. Ian’s tropical-storm-force winds prolonged outward as much as 415 miles (665 km), drenching a lot of Florida and the southeastern Atlantic coast.
“It crushed us,” Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno informed ABC’s “Good Morning America.” He mentioned roads and bridges remained impassable, stranding 1000’s within the county the place Ian made landfall simply north of Fort Myers. “We still cannot access many of the people that are in need.”
Authorities confirmed at the very least one storm loss of life in Florida — 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 folks died in Cuba after Ian struck there.
President Joe Biden formally issued a catastrophe declaration Thursday, and Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, mentioned the company is supporting search and rescue efforts. The U.S. Coast Guard additionally started rescues on southwest Florida’s barrier islands early Thursday, as quickly as winds died down, DeSantis mentioned.
“The Coast Guard had people who were in their attics and got saved off their rooftops,” DeSantis mentioned. “We’ve never seen storm surge of this magnitude … 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.”
A piece of the Sanibel Causeway fell into the ocean, slicing off entry to the barrier island the place 6,300 folks usually dwell. How many heeded necessary evacuation orders earlier than the storm surge washed over barrier islands wasn’t recognized, however Charlotte County Emergency Management Director Patrick Fuller expressed cautious optimism that worst-case situations won’t have been realized.
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, towering waves destroyed the historic beachfront pier in Naples, tearing out even the pilings beneath. “Right now, there is no pier,” mentioned Penny Taylor, a commissioner in Collier County, which incorporates Naples.
Emergency crews sawed via toppled timber to succeed in flooded properties, however with no electrical energy and nearly no cell service, it was inconceivable for many individuals to name for assist when the surge crammed their residing rooms.
“Portable towers are on the way for cell service. Chances are your loved ones do not have ability to contact you,” mentioned the sheriff’s workplace in Collier County, which incorporates Naples. “We can tell you as daylight reveals the aftermath, it’s going to be a hard day.”
In Fort Myers, Valerie Bartley was terrified as her household spent determined hours holding a eating room desk towards their patio door as particles slammed into their home.
“We just assumed that it was tearing our house apart,” she mentioned. As the storm raged exterior, she mentioned her 4-year-old daughter grabbed her hand and mentioned: “I’m scared too, but it’s going to be OK.”
Ian made landfall Wednesday close to Cayo Costa, a barrier island simply west of closely populated Fort Myers, as a Category 4 hurricane with 150 mph (241 kph) winds, tying it for the fifth-strongest hurricane, when measured by wind pace, ever to strike the U.S.
Ian’s middle got here ashore greater than 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Tampa and St. Petersburg, sparing them their first direct hit by a significant hurricane since 1921. Water drained from Tampa Bay because it approached, then returned with a surge.
The National Hurricane Center mentioned Ian was anticipated to regain near-hurricane energy after rising over Atlantic waters close to Cape Canaveral, with South Carolina in its sights for a second U.S. landfall on Friday.
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center remained closed and off-limits, aside from a small ride-out crew that spent the night time there. SpaceX’s subsequent astronaut launch to the International Space Station, in the meantime, was delayed till at the very least Oct. 5, two days late due to Ian.
Ocean waters have been receding after a storm surge introduced harmful waves to downtown areas from Englewood to Bonita Beach, together with Charlotte Harbor and Fort Myers. Cities from Orlando to Daytona Beach in northwest Florida bought their flip for extreme flooding earlier than Ian moved out to sea.
Paramedics rolled residents out of the Avante Orlando nursing house on stretchers and wheelchairs via floodwaters to ambulances and ready buses Thursday morning. A hospital system in southwest Florida was evacuating at the very least 1,200 sufferers for lack of secure ingesting water. And in Port Charlotte, employees crowded sufferers into the center two flooring after the emergency room flooded and winds tore off the roof over the intensive care unit.
The Florida Highway Patrol shut down the Florida Turnpike within the Orlando space as a consequence of vital flooding and mentioned the primary artery in the midst of the state will stay closed till water subsides.
Calls from folks trapped in flooded properties or from apprehensive relations flooded 911 traces. Pleas have been additionally posted on social media websites, some with video exhibiting debris-covered water sloshing towards the eaves of their properties.
Brittany Hailer, a journalist in Pittsburgh, contacted rescuers about her mom in North Fort Myers, whose house was swamped by 5 toes (1.5 meters) of water.
“We don’t know when the water’s going to go down. We don’t know how they’re going to leave, their cars are totaled,” Hailer mentioned. “Her only way out is on a boat.”
Another boat, carrying Cuban migrants, sank Wednesday in stormy climate east of Key West.
The U.S. Coast Guard initiated a search and rescue mission for 23 folks and managed to seek out three survivors about two miles (three kilometers) south of the Florida Keys, officers mentioned. Four different Cubans swam to Stock Island, simply east of Key West, the U.S. Border Patrol mentioned. Air crews continued to seek for probably 20 remaining migrants.
The storm beforehand killed two folks in Cuba, and introduced down the nation’s electrical grid.
More than 2.5 million Florida properties and companies have been left with out electrical energy, in accordance with the PowerOutage.us web site. Most of the properties and companies in 12 counties have been with out energy.
At 8 a.m. Thursday, the storm was about 40 miles (70 km) east of Orlando and 10 miles (15 kilometers) southwest of Cape Canaveral, carrying most sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph) and shifting towards the cape at 8 mph (13 kmh), the middle mentioned.
Up to a foot (30 centimeters) of rain forecast for elements of Northeast Florida, coastal Georgia and the Lowcountry of South Carolina. As a lot as 6 inches (15 centimeters) may fall in southern Virginia because the storm strikes inland over the Carolinas, and the middle mentioned landslides have been attainable within the southern Appalachian mountains.
The governors of South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia all preemptively declared states of emergency.
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Associated Press contributors embody Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg; Freida Frisaro in Miami; Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee; Mike Schneider in Orlando; Seth Borenstein and Aamer Madhani in Washington; Bobby Caina Calvan in New York, and Christina Mesquita in Havana, Cuba.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”