After Hurricane Ian’s deadly wrath, Florida, Carolinas begin recovery

FORT MYERS, Oct. 2 (BUS): Strapped by one of the deadliest storms in US history, Florida and the Carolinas faced a massive recovery Saturday as the remnants of Hurricane Ian threatened more flooding along the East Coast while leaving tens of billions of dollars. dollars in damage in its wake.


The number of confirmed deaths from Ian rose to at least 50, mostly in Lee County, Florida, which bore the brunt of the storm when it hit ashore on the state’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday with a Category 4 hurricane packing maximum sustained winds of 150 miles. (240 km) per hour, according to Reuters.


The death toll was expected to rise as the floodwaters receded and search teams reached more areas that the storm initially cut off.


As of Friday, about 10,000 people were reported missing in Florida, according to the state’s director of emergency management, who added that many of those were likely safe in shelters or unreachable due to power and phone outages.


With the full extent of the devastation becoming more apparent three days after Ian made landfall in the United States, officials said some of the most severe damage appeared to have been caused by strong, wind-driven waves that swept into coastal communities and washed away buildings.


Weakening again as it moved north and inland, Ian was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone on Saturday afternoon. But the storm’s remnants are still expected to lead to treacherous conditions for parts of the central Appalachian Mountains and the mid-Atlantic, according to the National Hurricane Center.

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Hours of flooding spread across southwest Virginia and southwest Virginia on Saturday, even as record large flooding continued in Central Florida.


About 1.2 million Florida homes and businesses had been without power as of 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT) on Saturday, with about 300,000 outages scattered across the states of Carolina and Virginia.


Florida has been responsible for the vast majority of confirmed storm-related deaths, with 35 counted by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office and 11 others reported by state officials in four neighboring counties.


North Carolina authorities said at least four other people died there. No deaths have been reported in South Carolina.

Damage from rising waters, caused by storms along the coast and torrential rains in the interior, was extensive.


“We’ve suffered more flood damage than wind damage,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Saturday. “That would require filing a lot of flood claims.”


Insurers have braced for claims of between $28 billion and $47 billion from what could amount to the deadliest storm in Florida since Hurricane Andrew in 1992, according to US real estate data and analytics firm CoreLogic.


President Joe Biden agreed to declare a disaster for Florida, saying that Ian “is likely to be among the worst[storms]…in the history of the nation.” On Saturday, he declared a state of emergency in North Carolina.


“So our situation is we’re still in search and rescue mode,” Souza, the city manager, said in Sanibel, the crews were just making their way to the hard-hit eastern end of that island on Saturday.

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He said city officials were aware of nearly 300 families of people who failed to leave the island as the storm approached, and their whereabouts and safety are now being investigated.


Ricky Anderson, 57, a cashier who recently moved from Illinois to nearby Fort Myers, said he “lost everything in the hurricane,” as did many of his neighbors.


“Where are all those who don’t have a home anymore supposed to go?” Anderson said.

Robert Hartmann, 81, and Fort Myers resident, 50, said government assistance is needed to get residents back on their feet.


He added, “We have no power, no phone service, nothing. We would just like a little help getting my house back to normal because I have nowhere to go.”

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