IONA, Fla. — Florida residents are grappling with widespread destruction and flooding after Hurricane Ian, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the United States, amid ongoing search efforts and a death toll that has risen at least at 48
In the worst-hit parts of the state, local and federal rescue teams continued to scour neighborhoods for survivors. “We’re not in a recovery phrase,” said Chase Fabrizio, leader of Maryland Task Force 1, a Federal Emergency Management Agency search and rescue team. “We are still searching.”
In the southwest and central regions of the state, about 800,000 homes and businesses remained without power Sunday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us. In North Carolina, more than 16,000 customers are still without power.
Meanwhile, several bridges were destroyed, which complicated the rescue work. The road to Sanibel, a 12-mile barrier island, became impassable, cutting the island off from the mainland.
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden plan to travel to Puerto Rico on Monday and Florida on Wednesday to view hurricane damage, the White House announced Saturday afternoon.
His visit comes as the president warned that Ian could be Florida’s deadliest hurricane. The confirmed death toll is expected to rise as autopsies are completed and recovery efforts continue.
The Florida Commission of Medical Examiners said Saturday night that the hurricane had caused 44 deaths in the state, most of them by drowning. Many of the victims were over 60 years old. Bodies were found inside flooded cars, floating in the water and on the beach. There were four storm-related deaths in North Carolina, Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said.
Officials said 30 of the victims in Florida were found in Lee County, which includes Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel and Cape Coral. The county has no running water and almost 70 percent of it has no electricity.
Across the affected region, residents were busy cleaning up on Sunday. Many had waited days to return home amid flooding and washed-out roads.
In Iona, a small coastal community between Fort Myers and Fort Myers Beach, tall piles of soggy couches, mattresses and kitchen cabinets were strewn across the front lawn.
In a predominantly Latino neighborhood, some residents were drying their clothes in the sun. The volunteers went by car handing out cases of water. “Everybody’s going to stay here, but we’re going to clean up and put our stuff outside,” Luis Hernandez, 33, said. “But we have no water, no clothes.”
As he helped his parents clean up their house, 15-year-old Rafael Martinez said the water rose so fast that “everything was destroyed.” He and his family climbed onto a table and chairs to stay above the water, he said, adding that he’s thankful his family, and he believes all of his neighbors, survived.
Many storefronts were damaged by the flood waters. John Henson, owner of a two-story commercial office in the area, returned to his business to find someone had broken in during the storm.
“If someone needed shelter or food, he would give them both,” Henson said. “But they stole things and tried to move things from one room to another … and they broke and kicked the doors for no reason.”
Henson predicted that this part of Fort Myers “will never be what it was.”
“You don’t even realize how bad it is until you start driving the side roads,” said Henson, who lived near Shell Point. “It’s brutal out there.”
Explore aerial images of Hurricane Ian damage along the Florida coast
In Punta Gorda, 25 miles north of Fort Myers, Johnny Riggs and his family were waiting inside a shelter Saturday night for power to return to their home in nearby Port Charlotte.
Riggs, 73, said she evacuated with her daughter and granddaughter just before Ian hit land, and went to a shelter near her apartment. When the rain stopped, they returned home.
His building sustained little damage, but the lack of electrical power in the region made his stay difficult. The food in the fridge was spoiling and there were few restaurants and shops open in the area.
Worse, the building no longer had running water, he said. After three days, the family moved out of the apartment Saturday morning and checked into a shelter in a high school gym that is part of the Babcock Ranch master-planned community.
“We had been using bottled water to clean the commode, but now it’s over,” Riggs said, finishing a free spaghetti dinner while her daughter, Courtney Riggs-Johnston, and granddaughter Trevlyn, 14, they rummaged through boxes of donated clothes.
With long lines of cars outside the few gas stations that had fuel and several roads still closed due to flooding, “I feel like we’re going backwards,” Riggs said.
While they promised help, officials on Sunday acknowledged the long road to recovery. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told ABC News’ “This Week” that Sanibel, the barrier island near Fort Myers, will be uninhabitable for the foreseeable future.
“I think our priority right now is to identify the people who are left on Sanibel who wanted to stay there, but eventually have to leave because there’s no way to continue their lives there,” Rubio said, adding that it will take “a couple”. of years at least” to rebuild the bridge that connected Sanibel to the mainland.
Rubio said the total damage was more devastating than anything he could remember in Florida history. “Fort Myers Beach doesn’t exist anymore. It’s going to have to be rebuilt,” he said. “It was a piece of old Florida that you can’t get back.”
Speaking about the program itself, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said emergency workers are “still actively in the search and rescue phase” and are “going to every home to make sure we don’t leave anyone behind back”.
Several guests on the Sunday morning shows were asked about the need for stricter building codes.
“After this, we’re going to learn that we’re going to have to improve our … building codes,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
Criswell echoed the sentiment on the same show, stressing that Florida needed to ensure that “as we rebuild, we rebuild more resilient.”
But local officials pushed back, arguing that current regulations are sufficient. “We have good building codes,” Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson told “Face the Nation.”
“The newer houses, they weathered the storm,” he said, as evidence that building codes for newer construction were adequate. “Older homes, which were built lower and not up to current codes, suffered the most damage.”
On Sunday, officials also faced a new round of questions about how long Lee County officials waited to make evacuation decisions amid uncertain forecasts in the days leading up to the storm.
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno defended the government’s response. “We did exactly what we had to do,” Marceno said during a news conference. He said there has been no delay in issuing evacuations. “The second we could and should issue that order, we did,” he said.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) also defended Lee County, telling CNN on Sunday that they were dealing with a storm that changed course unexpectedly and issued evacuation orders as soon as it was warranted.
Asked if the state would investigate the evacuation orders issued, DeSantis said “they informed people and most people didn’t want to do it.”
“This is just the reality,” he added. “You’re in a situation: Are you going to take someone out of their house who doesn’t want to? I don’t think that’s the proper use of government.”
Flooding is expected to continue in parts of central Florida, causing further destruction and further challenging cleanup and rescue efforts. The storm is already estimated to have caused more than $60 billion in property losses in Florida.
Hurricane-affected Floridians face gridlock, flooding and major damage
Craig reported from Iona, Olivo reported from Sarasota and Whalen reported from DC Karoun Demirjian, Meryl Kornfield and Amy B Wang in Washington and Matt Brown in Atlanta contributed to this report.