Ian leaves dozens of dead and focuses on rescue and recovery – Morning Journal

Rebecca Santana, Meg Kinard

Fortmeyers (AP), Florida – South South Carolina and North Carolina officials began searching, while the rescue team continued to search for survivors under the influence of Hurricane Ian, so dozens of residents in Florida were Saturday. I left the house that was flooded with a boat and air in the air. Stock of their loss.

With 47 confirmed deaths in Florida, 4 in North Carolina and 3 in Cuba, the storm, one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the United States with hurricane wind speeds, has killed more than 40 people. The storm weakened as it rolled into the mid-Atlantic on Saturday, but it washed away bridges and piers, pushed huge boats onto land-based buildings, sheared roofs off homes and cut power to hundreds of thousands of people.

Most of the confirmed deaths in Florida were from drowning in storm waters, but some were due to Ian’s tragic aftereffects. and died.

As of Saturday, more than 1,000 people had been rescued from flooded areas on Florida’s southwest coast alone, Daniel Håkanson, a four-star general and head of the National Guard, told the Associated Press on a flight to Florida. .

Later in the evening, the White House announced that President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden would travel to Florida on Wednesday.

Chris Schnapp was at the Port Sanibel Marina in Fort Myers on Saturday waiting to see if his 83-year-old mother-in-law had been evacuated from Sanibel Island. but there were suitcases and animals in tow, but Schnapp’s mother-in-law was not among them.

“She stayed on the island. My brother -in -law and my sister -in -law owned there two businesses there. They evacuated. She didn’t want to go,” said Tsunap. 。 She was not sure if her mother -in -law was still on the island or was taken to some shelter.

On Pine Island, the largest barrier island off the Florida Gulf Coast, homes were shattered and boats littered the roads as volunteer rescue groups went door-to-door and asked residents if they wanted to evacuate. People spoke of the horrors of being trapped in their homes as water levels continued to rise.

“We saw boats and houses as the water kept hitting the houses. We saw everything fly away,” said Joe Conforti, holding back tears. He said he would not have succeeded had it not been for his wife, who suggested standing on the table to avoid the rising water. You can see how fast it moves when you are on the door. There is no way to survive it. ”

Flooding rivers can pose significant challenges to relief efforts and delivery of supplies. The Myakka River washed away Interstate 75, forcing the highway to be closed for some time. An important corridor connects the southwest Florida region spanning Port Charlotte and Fort Myers to the north of Tampa. Later Saturday, state officials said water levels had dropped enough to allow Interstate 75 to fully reopen.

Tyler Fleming, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Tampa, said river levels in southwestern Florida are rising or close to rising, but won’t see a significant drop in water levels for several days. is expected.

Elsewhere, Pawleys Island in South Carolina, a beach community about 115 kilometers up the coast from Charleston, was one of the hardest hit. At least half of the island remained without electricity on Saturday.

Eddie Wilder, who has been to Pawleys Island for more than 60 years, said Friday’s storm was “insane”. He said waves as high as 25 feet (7.6 meters) washed away the iconic landmark, a local pier.

The interior of the house, which is 9 meters (30 feet) above sea level, remained dry. “We watched it collapse and we saw it drift with the American flag.”

Pawley’s Pier is one of at least four piers along the South Carolina coast destroyed by a storm. Meanwhile, the Intracoastal Waterway was littered with the remains of several boathouses that had been knocked off stakes.

John Joseph, whose father built the family’s beige beach house in 1962, was overjoyed to return Saturday from hard-hit Georgetown. I was.

“Thank God these walls are still here. I feel very lucky that this is the worst,” he said of the sand that had swept under his home. “What happened in Florida – oh God bless you. If it was a Category 4, I wouldn’t be here.”

In North Carolina, the storm claimed four lives, mostly knocking down trees and power lines, and cut power to more than 280,000 people statewide on Saturday morning, officials said. The blackout decreased sharply after a few hours as the crew worked to restore power.

Two of the deaths in North Carolina were in storm-related vehicle crashes, with a man drowning after his truck fell into a swamp and another with carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator in his garage, officials said. died in

At Port Sanibel Marina in Fort Myers, charter boat captain Ryan Kane inspected two boats for damage on Saturday. A storm surge pushed several boats and docks ashore. He said the boat he owned was a total loss and could not be used to rescue people. Now, he said, it will be a long time before he charters fishermen again.

“There’s a hole in the hull. We got water on the motor. We needed water for everything,” he said, adding, “The boat should be in the water, not in the parking lot.”

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Kinard reported from Paules, South Carolina. AP communication contributors include Miami’s Frida Frisaro. Brendan Farington in Tarahasie, Florida. Gerald Herbert in Pine Island, Florida. Mike Pesori of Florida Lee Hi -Car. Sarah Lankin in Richmond, Virginia. Amy Fallity of Minneapolis.