Aerial photos and videos show breathtaking devastation
Florida:
The death toll from Hurricane Ian, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the United States, soared above 40 on Saturday, as President Joe Biden traveled to Florida later in the week to survey the devastation.
Shocked Florida communities were only beginning to face the full scale of the destruction, with rescue teams still searching for survivors in submerged neighborhoods and along the state’s southwest coast.
Homes, restaurants and businesses were destroyed when Ian roared as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Wednesday.
The Florida Medical Examiner’s Commission said late Saturday that the number of confirmed hurricane-related deaths had risen to 44, but reports of additional fatalities were still emerging by county — pointing to a higher final toll.
Hard-hit Lee County alone recorded 35 deaths, according to its sheriff, while US media, including NBC and CBS, reported more than 70 deaths directly or indirectly related to the storm.
In the coastal state of North Carolina, the governor’s office confirmed four deaths related to Ian.
Biden and his wife, Jill, will visit Florida on Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre tweeted, but the couple will first travel to Puerto Rico on Monday to survey the destruction from a different storm, Hurricane Fiona, which hit Florida. Hit the US region last month.
Boats and civilians still rescued the last stranded residents of the small island of Matalacha in Florida’s Lee County on Saturday. Debris, abandoned vehicles and fallen trees litter Pammel’s main street and surrounding areas, which are dotted with colorful wooden houses with corrugated roofs.
Home to about 800 people, two bridges were cut off from the mainland after damage, and those who fled early began returning home to survey the destruction.
Chip Farrar, sitting in the shade of a deserted Matalacha house, told AFP that “no one is telling us what to do, no one is telling us where to go.”
“The evacuation orders came too late,” the 43-year-old said. “But most people who are still here wouldn’t have gone anyway. It’s a very blue-collar place. And most people have nowhere to go, which is the biggest issue.”
According to the US Coast Guard, sixteen migrants were missing from a boat that sank during the storm. Two people were found dead and nine others were rescued, including four Cubans who swam to the shore in the Florida Keys.
More than 900,000 customers in Florida remained without electricity on Saturday night, hampering efforts by those who were lost to return to their homes.
In Fort Myers Beach, a town on the Gulf of Mexico coast that was hit by the storm, Pete Belinda said his house was “just turned upside down, wet, full of mud.”
Ian moved over Florida and into the Atlantic Ocean again, this time as a Category 1 hurricane on Friday off the South Carolina coast, with maximum sustained winds of 85 miles (140 kph) per hour.
It was later downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, and it was spreading over Virginia late Saturday.
The website poweroutage.us said Saturday that more than 45,000 people in North Carolina and Virginia remained without electricity.
CoreLogic, a firm that specializes in property analysis, said wind-related damages to residential and commercial properties in Florida could cost insurers up to $32 billion, while flood damages could reach $15 billion.
“This is the costliest Florida hurricane since Hurricane Andrew made landfall in 1992,” said CoreLogic’s Tom Larson.
– Rescue work underway –
As of Saturday morning, Governor Ron DeSantis’ office said more than 1,100 people had been rescued across Florida.
DeSantis reported that hundreds of rescuers were going door to door “up and down the beach.”
Many Floridians evacuated before the storm, but thousands opted to take shelter in place and get out.
Two hard-hit barrier islands near Fort Myers – Pine Island and Sanibel Island – were cut after the storm caused damage to the mainland.
Aerial photos and video show the devastating devastation in Sanibel and elsewhere.
A handful of restaurants and bars reopened in Fort Myers, creating an illusion of normalcy amid downed trees and broken storefronts.
Before invading Florida, Ian plunged the whole of Cuba into darkness after the island’s power network collapsed.
Electricity was slowly returning, mainly in Havana, but many homes were left without electricity.
A new storm in the Pacific, Hurricane Orlean, intensified to Category 2 strength off the Mexican coast, where it was forecast to make landfall in the coming days.
Scientists say more severe weather events are occurring worldwide as a result of human-induced climate change
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)