While authorities in South Carolina awaited dawn to survey damage from Hurricane Ian’s strike there, rescuers hunted for survivors among the wreckage of Florida’s flooded homes as the remains of one of the fiercest and most expensive hurricanes to ever hit the U.S. continued to surge north.
Millions of people were terrorised by the powerful storm for the majority of the week as it tore through Florida from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean, where it gathered enough strength to launch a final assault on South Carolina. The storm first tore through western Cuba before raking across Florida. Ian, a post-tropical storm that had now weakened, was forecast to pass over central North Carolina on Saturday morning and make landfall in south-central Virginia by the afternoon.
There were at least 30 documented fatalities, including 27 in Florida, largely from drowning, but also from the catastrophic storm’s aftermath. Authorities reported that an elderly couple died after their oxygen devices went off when they lost electricity.
Distressed locals, meanwhile, waded through knee-deep water on Friday to carry whatever items they could from their flooded homes into rafts and canoes.
“I want to cry and sit in the corner. Stevie Scuderi shuffled around her mostly ruined Fort Myers condo, the muck in her kitchen sticking to her purple sandals. “I don’t know what else to do,” she said.
Ian’s centre landed in South Carolina close to Georgetown, a small town on the Winyah Bay that is located around 60 miles north of the famous Charleston. Four piers along the coast were partially destroyed by the hurricane, including two that were connected to the well-known tourist destination of Myrtle Beach.
On Friday, the storm’s winds were far less than they had been earlier in the week when Ian made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Residents there were in disbelief as they attempted to make sense of what they had just experienced, while authorities and volunteers were still evaluating the damage.
In order to transfer his grandmother and girlfriend to the second story during the storm, Anthony Rivera, 25, claimed he had to climb through the window of his first-floor flat. The storm surge had pushed a boat up right next to his flat as they scurried to get out from the rising water.
Because I can’t stop any boats, he declared, “That’s the scariest thing in the world.” I’m not Superman, I say.
Ian had long since left Florida, yet troubles kept cropping up. Due to the enormous amount of water over the Myakka River, a 14-mile section of Interstate 75 in the Port Charlotte area was shut down late Friday in both directions.
On Friday, the official death toll increased throughout the day despite warnings from authorities that it would probably increase significantly once teams completed a more thorough assessment of the damage. According to Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie, searches were focused on emergency rescues and preliminary evaluations. He gave the example of a home that was submerged.
“The water was over the rooftop, but we had a Coast Guard rescue swimmer swim down into it and he could see that it appeared to be human remains,” the rescue swimmer said. We are unsure of the precise number, Guthrie said.
A 68-year-old woman who was carried off by a wave into the ocean and a 67-year-old man who fell into rising water inside his home while waiting for help were among those who died.
Authorities said that a 71-year-old man died after falling to his death from a rooftop while installing rain shutters, and a 22-year-old woman died after an ATV rolled over from a road washout. Earlier in the week, three more persons passed away in Cuba.
The disaster modelling company Karen Clark & Co., which periodically releases flash catastrophe estimates, predicts that Hurricane Ian has likely cost “far over $100 billion” in damage, including $63 billion in damages from privately insurance policies. If those figures are accurate, Ian would rank as at least the fourth most expensive storm in American history.
Residents of the Country Club Ridge neighbourhood in North Point, Florida, waded through flooded streets on Friday. North Point is a Sarasota suburb. Through the ankle-deep water, John Chihil solemnly dragged a canoe and another small boat.
“There isn’t much to feel, actually. You realise it’s a work of God?” he asked. You can only hope and pray for a better day tomorrow, after all.
