Hurricane Ian: ‘catastrophic’ damage in Florida
as storm heads to South Carolina
Biden says hurricane could ‘be deadliest in state’s
history’ as storm regains strength and heads towards South Carolina
Richard
Luscombe in Miami
@richlusc
Fri 30 Sep
2022 07.23 BST
The
“catastrophic” scale of the damage wreaked by Hurricane Ian’s 150mph deadly
rampage across Florida has become clearer as emergency crews rescued trapped
residents from flooded homes, and authorities expressed fears of a growing
death toll.
As South
Carolina braced for Ian to make a second landfall on Friday, search and rescue
crews in south-west Florida conducted hundreds of missions in areas that were
submerged by a storm surge of up to 18ft after one of the most powerful storms
to strike the US swept ashore on Wednesday.
With all of
South Carolina’s coast under a hurricane warning, a steady stream of vehicles
left Charleston on Thursday, many likely heeding officials’ warnings to seek
higher ground. Storefronts were sandbagged to ward off high water levels in an
area prone to inundation.
Along the
Battery area at the southern tip of the 350-year-old city’s peninsula, locals
and tourists alike took selfies against the choppy backdrop of whitecaps in
Charleston harbor as palm trees bent in gusty wind.
Florida
governor Ron DeSantis gave a briefing on Thursday night where said at least 700
rescues, mostly by air, had been conducted so far, involving the US Coast
Guard, the National Guard and urban search-and-rescue teams.
Joe Biden
said Ian “could be the deadliest hurricane in Florida’s history”, adding at an
afternoon briefing at the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (Fema) that he was “hearing early reports of what may be substantial
loss of life”.
Local
officials were more cautious. Chris Constance, commissioner of Charlotte
county, said he knew of six confirmed fatalities, but was unaware of the
circumstances. In Lee county, sheriff Carmine Marceno said he was aware of
“roughly five”.
Authorities
confirmed at least one Florida death – a 72-year-old man in Deltona who fell
into a canal while using a hose to drain his pool in the heavy rain, the
Volusia county sheriff’s office said. Two storm deaths were reported in Cuba.
Earlier in
the day Ian had been downgraded to a tropical storm as it crept across the
Florida peninsula and emerged in the Atlantic Ocean but regained hurricane
level, category one, in the early evening as it spun towards South Carolina
where it was expected to makes its second landfall on Friday morning local
time.
The
National Hurricane Center said that by midnight the storm’s maximum sustained
winds increased to more than 80mph (128km/h), and governors of Georgia, South
Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia declared states of emergency.
Biden also
declared a state of emergency in South Carolina, where some Charlotte residents
had chosen to evacuate on Thursday afternoon.
In coastal
south-west Florida, desperate residents posted to social media sites, pleading
for rescue for themselves or loved ones. Helicopters were in the air at first
light, assisting recovery efforts by coast guard and national guard troops.
“Time is of
the essence and we’ve got a lot of people we need to help,” DeSantis said at a
morning press conference.
DeSantis
said Ian’s impact across Florida was widespread, caused by flooding from a
deluge of three months’ worth of rain in 48 hours in some areas, the
unprecedented storm surge, and category 4 winds.
Aerial
video and photographs showed massive devastation and flooding in beach
communities from Naples to Fort Myers, with homes and businesses reduced to
matchwood, and other buildings, mobile homes, boats and vehicles totally
wrecked or submerged.
More than 2
million people remained without power, DeSantis said, adding that some areas
could be without electricity for weeks while power grids are completely
rebuilt.
“The
impacts of this storm are historic, and the damage that was done has been
historic. And this is just off initial assessment,” he said.
“This storm
is having broad impacts across the state, and some of the flooding you’re going
to see in areas hundreds of miles from where this made landfall are going to
set records.”
In an
afternoon update, DeSantis spoke of a “biblical storm surge” sweeping across
Sanibel island. “It’s washed away roads, washed away structures,” he said,
referring to the partial collapse of Sanibel causeway, the only road route to
the mainland.
Biden made
a major disaster declaration for nine of the worst-affected counties, freeing
federal resources to supplement local rescue and recovery efforts, and
guaranteeing government money for an initial 30-day period for costs likely to
run into billions of dollars.
“Many
families are hurting today, and our country hurts with them,” the president
said.
“We’re
continuing to see deadly rainfall, catastrophic storm surges, roads and homes
flooded, millions of people without power and thousands hunkered down in
schools and community centers.
“They’re
wondering what’s going to be left when they get to go home.”
Biden said
federal funds would cover “the majority of the cost of rebuilding public
buildings, like schools and fire stations, and folks in Florida who have
destroyed or damaged homes”.
He said
individual assistance payments of up to $75,000 would be available for home
repairs or to replace lost property.
Residents
from Punta Gorda on the south-west coast to Orlando and Cape Canaveral,
meanwhile, were assessing the damage from the massive flooding, rainfall and
punishing winds.
“I don’t
think that we can quantify it yet. But I can tell you that it is going to be
catastrophic,” Deanne Criswell, the Fema administrator, told CNN.
“The amount
of impact to these communities is going to be significant. A number of these
families are living in mobile homes. We are preparing for the potential of
thousands of families that are going to need assistance.”
In Lee
county, officials were attempting to calculate a death toll. Sheriff Marceno
walked back an earlier claim of “hundreds”, but said he feared what rescue
crews would find.
“There are
people I know did not evacuate,” he told CNN. “They tried to take cover,
they’ve gone to the second floor and the attic [but] the water got so high here
with a surge of approximately 16ft give or take, that’s what’s going to
compromise structures and also that’s the most deadly.”
Kevin
Anderson, the Fort Myers mayor, said rescue operations were continuing and it
was too soon for an accurate figure. “I just know there are several deaths
related to the storm,” he said.
The storm
surge flooded the lower-level emergency room of the HCA Florida Fawcett
hospital in Port Charlotte, while fierce winds tore part of the fourth-floor
roof from its intensive care unit, according to Dr Birgit Bodine.
Intensive
care staff were forced to evacuate the medium-sized hospital’s sickest patients
to other floors.
Bodine said
incoming storm injuries could make things worse. “The ambulances may be coming
soon and we don’t know where to put them in the hospital at this point,” she
said. “We’re doubled and tripled up.”
The
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário