The largest search and rescue mission in U.S. history is struggling as obstacles left behind by Hurricane Ian hamper efforts.
At least 77 people have been confirmed dead as the storm continues from Florida to North Carolina.
The biggest impacts remain in Florida, where river flooding may continue inland well into next week, forecasters warn. An aerial photograph taken Friday shows the only access to the Matlacha neighborhood destroyed in the wake of Hurricane Ian in Fort Myers, Florida. (Ricardo Arduengo/AFP/Getty Images)
In Florida’s ground zero, Fort Myers, the only highway in town, I75, has been cut off by flooding.
Traffic is blocked for 16 km, meaning food, fuel and other crucial supplies cannot enter the devastated city.
People trapped in their cars in flood waters must be lifted out by the US Coast Guard.
Gusts of wind, blowing down King Street, twist umbrellas during Hurricane Ian in Charleston, South Carolina, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022 (Grace Beahm Alford/The Post and Courier)
Online cameras showed seawater filling neighborhoods in Garden City up to calf height. As Ian moved across South Carolina on its way to North Carolina on Friday evening, it was downgraded from a hurricane to a post-tropical cyclone.
In this drone photo, displaced and damaged homes are seen two days after Hurricane Ian made landfall in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
In Florida’s hard-hit Fort Myers Beach, where a furious storm surge swept away homes and left little but debris, shocked survivors are coming to terms with what they saw and mourning those they lost.
Kevin Behen, who rode out the storm on the second floor of a building in Fort Myers Beach, told CNN Friday night that he knew of two men who died making sure their wives escaped a house that had started to flood.
“These guys pushed their wives out the windows to where there was a tree,” Behen said. “They just looked at their wives and said, ‘We can’t take it anymore, we love you. Goodbye,’ and that was it.”
About 90 percent of the island is “pretty much gone,” Fort Myers Beach Councilman Dan Allers said Friday.
“Unless you have a high-rise condo or a newer concrete home that’s built to the same standards today, your home is pretty much gone.”
Many of the deaths were from drowning, including a 68-year-old woman swept into the ocean by a wave. A 67-year-old man, who was waiting to be rescued, died after falling into rising water inside his home, authorities said.
Other storm-related fatalities included a 22-year-old woman who died after an all-terrain vehicle overturned in a road washout and a 71-year-old man who fell from a roof while placing the rain blinds. An 80-year-old woman and a 94-year-old man who depended on oxygen machines also died after the equipment stopped working during the blackouts.
University of Central Florida students use an inflatable mattress as they evacuate an apartment complex near campus that was completely flooded by rain from Hurricane Ian, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo /John Raoux)
Three more people died in Cuba earlier in the week as the storm moved north. The death toll was expected to rise substantially once emergency officials had a chance to search many of the hardest-hit areas.
Rescue crews piloted boats and waded through Florida’s river streets after the storm to save thousands of people trapped amid flooded homes and destroyed buildings.
Hurricane Ian has likely caused “more than $100 billion” in damage, including $63 billion ($98 billion) in privately insured losses, according to disaster modeling firm Karen Clark & Company, which regularly publishes rapid catastrophe estimates. If these numbers are As a result, this would make Ian at least the fourth costliest hurricane in the history of the United States.
Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said first responders have so far focused on “rushed” searches, aimed at emergency rescues and initial assessments, which will be followed by two waves additional searches. First responders who come across possible debris are leaving it unconfirmed, he said Friday, citing the case of a submerged house as an example.
A road is completely filled with a high pile of debris from destroyed homes and businesses in front of the beach, two days after the passage of Hurricane Ian, in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, Friday, September 30, 2022 (AP Photo/ Rebecca Blackwell)
“The water was up on the roof to the right, but we had a Coast Guard rescue swimmer go down there and he was able to identify what appeared to be human remains. We don’t know exactly how many,” Guthrie said.
Desperate to locate and rescue their loved ones, social media users shared phone numbers, addresses and photos of their family and friends online for anyone to check.
Orlando residents returned to flooded homes Friday, pulling up their pants to wade through muddy, knee-deep water on their streets.
Friends of Ramon Rodriguez left ice, bottled water and hot coffee at the entrance to his subdivision, where 10 of the 50 homes were flooded and the road looked like a lake. He had no electricity or food in his home, and his car was stuck in water.
Friends seeing each other for the first time since the passage of Hurricane Ian stop to hug as they walk and bike across the island to collect belongings from the wreckage of their homes, in Fort Myers Beach , Florida, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022 (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
“There’s water everywhere,” Rodriguez said. “The situation here is pretty bad.”
The devastating storm surge destroyed many older homes on the barrier island of Sanibel, Florida, and cracked its sand dunes. The tallest condo buildings were intact but with the bottom floor blown out. Trees and utility poles were scattered everywhere.
Satellite images show the level of damage
Municipal rescuers, private crews and the Coast Guard used boats and helicopters Friday to evacuate residents who were caught in the storm and then cut off from the mainland when a causeway collapsed. Satellite images show the extent of the damage.
Volunteers who rode to the island on personal watercraft helped escort an elderly couple to an area where Coast Guard lifeguards took them aboard a helicopter.
Hours after weakening to a tropical storm as it crossed the Florida peninsula, Ian regained strength Thursday evening over the Atlantic. Ian made landfall in South Carolina with maximum sustained winds of 140 km/h. When it hit Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday, it was a powerful Category 4 hurricane with 150 mph (240 km/h).
This composite satellite image provided by Planet Labs shows the Sanibel Causeway, Florida, left, taken on July 4, 2021, and damage to the causeway taken on Friday, September 30, 2022, after hurricane Ian crossed the area. (Planet Labs via AP)
After the heaviest rain swept through Charleston, Will Shalosky examined a large elm tree in front of his house that had fallen on his downtown street. He noted that the damage could have been much worse.
“If this tree fell any other way, it would be on our house,” Shalosky said. “It’s pretty scary, pretty distressing.”
Ian’s heavy rain and 40km/h winds were near the North Carolina-Virginia state line by 11am Saturday (1am Sunday AEST) after crossing at North Carolina on Friday evening (Saturday AEST). Gov. Roy Cooper warned residents to be vigilant as up to 8 inches of rain could fall in some areas.
“Hurricane Ian is on our doorstep. Expect heavy rain and strong sustained winds across most of our state,” Cooper said. “Our message today is simple: be smart and be safe.”
In Washington, President Joe Biden said he was directing “every possible action to save lives and get help to survivors.”
An Estero Island resident carries empty jerry cans as he walks off the island in search of gas, two days after Hurricane Ian passed, in Fort Myers Beach, Florida, Friday, Sept. 30, 2022 (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
“It’s going to take months, years to rebuild,” Biden said.
“I just want the people of Florida to know, we see what you’re going through and we stand with you.”
Not only those directly affected suffer
The flooding in North Port shows that Ian’s impact has not been limited to beaches and resort towns. Heavy rains from the storm have ended up pouring into suburban and inland cities that are not part of hurricane warnings.
It’s the rivers that do it because of the hurricane deluge, which continues to wreak havoc long after the winds have passed. And it’s leading to rescue efforts not so different from those on the coasts.
Flooding was reported throughout the center of the state: around Orlando and its theme parks, south of Kissimmee, east of Daytona Beach, Arcadia cattle country. People near the rivers were deeply affected.
A car is submerged in flood water in North Port, Fla., Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Adriana Gomez Licon)
Near North Port, the Florida Department of Transportation closed a stretch of Interstate 75 in both directions Friday night due to the flooded Myakka River.
Dozens of National Guardsmen arrived early Friday in North Port, about 90 miles south of Tampa, to speed up efforts begun Wednesday by firefighters from other states and counties. And city officials were scrambling to open an evacuation center at a high school.
Just west of North Port, the National Weather Service predicted the Myakka River would reach a record flood level Friday at 10 feet and then rise slightly higher before receding.
The nearby Pau River reached an even higher mark: almost 7.3 meters, which is about double the previous record. It runs mainly through rural areas, especially through the ranching town of Arcadia, which hosts a well-known Florida rodeo.