Hurricane Ian made landfall again Friday, this time in South Carolina after leaving a trail of destruction in Florida earlier this week.
The National Hurricane Center reported that the center of Ian made landfall near Georgetown with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph).
Ian hit Florida’s Gulf Coast as a powerful Category 4 hurricane packing 150 mph (240 kph) winds, inundating homes and leaving nearly 2.7 million people without power.
It also left a wide swath of destruction after making landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast as one of the strongest storms to hit the United States. The hurricane flooded areas, uprooted houses, demolished businesses…
At least nine people have been confirmed dead, a number that will almost certainly rise as officials confirm more deaths and search for people.
Rescue teams piloted boats and walked the streets to save thousands of people trapped amid flooded homes and buildings destroyed by Hurricane Ian.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that rescue teams had gone door-to-door to more than 3,000 homes in the hardest-hit areas. “There really has been a Herculean effort,” he said during a news conference in Tallahassee.
Among the dead were an 80-year-old woman and a 94-year-old man who relied on oxygen machines that stopped working amid power outages, as well as a 67-year-old man who was waiting to be rescued and died after falling into a flood. House.
Authorities fear the death toll could rise substantially due to the vast territory inundated by the storm.
Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said first responders have so far focused on “rush” searches, aimed at emergency rescues and initial assessments, to be followed by two additional waves of searches. Initial rescuers coming across possible wreckage are leaving it unconfirmed, he said Friday, citing the case of a submerged house as an example.
In Florida, businesses near Fort Myers Beach were completely leveled, leaving twisted debris behind. Broken docks floated at odd angles alongside the damaged ships. “I don’t know how anyone could have survived there,” William Goodison said amid the rubble of a mobile home park where he lived for 11 years.
The road to Fort Myers Beach was littered with downed trees, boats and other debris. Cars were left abandoned on the road. Emergency crews sawed down felled trees to reach the trapped people. Many people were unable to call for help due to power outages and downed cell phone towers. A section of the Sanibel Causeway fell into the sea, cutting off access to the barrier island where 6,300 people live.
Before making landfall in South Carolina, gusts of rain lashed trees and power lines and left many areas in the central Charleston Peninsula underwater.
Associated Press/OnCuba.
