Charleston: A resurgent Hurricane Ian devastated coastal South Carolina on Friday, causing severe storm surges and flooding roads in Florida, trapping thousands of homes and killing at least 17 people.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said the deaths included a 22-year-old woman who was thrown into an ATV rollover Friday due to flooding on the road and a 71-year-old man who died before suffering a head injury. was dead when he fell from the roof. Rain shutters up. Many of the other deaths were caused by drowning, including that of a 68-year-old woman who drowned in the sea.
Earlier this week, three more people were killed in a tornado that hit Cuba in a northerly direction. The death toll was expected to rise significantly once emergency officials had the opportunity to search the most affected areas.
Ian’s center moved ashore near Georgetown, South Carolina, with winds much weaker than those crossing Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday, as one of the strongest storms ever hit the U.S. Gone, it fell from a hurricane to a post-tropical cyclone.
Sheets of rain cut down trees and power lines and left many areas of Charleston’s downtown peninsula under water. Parts of four gorges along the coast, including two at Myrtle Beach, collapsed and were washed away in the waves of churning. Online cameras showed seawater filling up to calf level in Garden City.
Ian caused widespread devastation in Florida, leaving areas flooded on both of its banks, tearing homes from their slabs, demolishing beachfront businesses and leaving more than 2 million people without electricity.
Rescuers floated boats and traversed river streets in Florida to rescue thousands of people trapped between homes and broken buildings after floods.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that the crew had gone door-to-door to more than 3,000 homes in the worst-affected areas.
“It’s been a really tough effort,” he said during a news conference in Tallahassee.
Officials fear that the death toll from the storm could rise significantly given the wider area.
Those killed included an 80-year-old woman and a 94-year-old man who depended on oxygen machines that stopped working amid a power outage, as well as a 67-year-old man who was waiting to be rescued and collapsed. Gaya officials said water was rising inside his house.
Florida Division of Emergency Management director Kevin Guthrie said first responders have so far focused on ‘hasty’ searches, aimed at emergency rescue and preliminary assessments, which will be followed by two additional waves of searches. Initial responders who come across possible remains are leaving them unconfirmed, he said on Friday, describing the case of a submerged house as an example.
“The water was on the roof, right, but we had a Coast Guard rescue swimmer who swam in it and could identify what appeared to be human remains. We don’t know exactly how many,” Guthrie said.
Desperate to trace and protect their loved ones, social media users shared phone numbers, addresses and photos of their family members and friends online, who could check on them.
Orlando residents returned to flooded homes on Friday, taking off their pants to walk through muddy, knee-high water in their streets. Ramon Rodriguez’s friends spilled ice, bottled water and hot coffee at the entrance of their subdivision, where 10 of 50 homes were flooded and the street looked like a lake. There was neither electricity nor food in his house, and his car was stuck in the water.
“There’s water everywhere,” Rodriguez said. “The situation here is very bad.”
University of Central Florida students living in an apartment complex near the Orlando campus arrive to retrieve
The devastating hurricane wave destroyed several old homes on Barrier Island in Sanibel, Florida, and caused cracks in its sand dunes. The tall condominium building was intact but the floor below was blown away. Trees and electric poles are scattered everywhere.
Municipal rescue teams, private teams and the Coast Guard used boats and helicopters on Friday to evacuate residents who had halted for the storm and were then cut off from the mainland when a bridge collapsed. Volunteers who went to the island in personal boats helped escort an elderly couple to the area where Coast Guard rescue teams took them on a helicopter.
Ian regained strength over the Atlantic Thursday evening, hours after weakening to a tropical storm while crossing the Florida peninsula. Ian made landfall in South Carolina with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph). When it hit Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday, it was a powerful Category 4 hurricane with gusts of 150 mph (240 kph).
After the heaviest rain tore through Charleston, Will Shalowsky examines a large elm tree in front of his house that had fallen on his downtown street. He said the damage could have been much greater.
“If this tree had fallen in a different way, it would have been in our house,” Shalosky said. “It’s very scary, very disturbing.”
In North Carolina, bands of heavy rain and winds lashed the state on Friday afternoon. Gov. Roy Cooper warned residents to be on the alert, noting that some areas could receive up to 8 inches (20.3 cm) of rain with strong winds.
“Hurricane Ian is on our doorstep. Expect drenching rain and sustained heavy winds for much of our state,” Cooper said. “Our message today is simple: Be smart and stay safe.”
In Washington, President Joe Biden said he was directing “everything possible to save lives and help survivors.”
Biden said, “The rebuilding will take months, years. I just want the people of Florida to know, let’s see what you’re going through and we’re with you.”