The rescue and reconstruction tasks after the onslaught of Hurricane Ian continue in Florida (USA), where there are still some 770,000 people without power and the rescuers are focused on the islands facing the Atlantic located in the southwest of this state , the “ground zero”.
The process of restoring electricity is moving relatively quickly, especially in Lee and Charlotte counties, the most affected by Ian, and according to Eric Silagy, president of FPL, the largest energy company in the state, it will still take a week for an almost complete restoration of supply.
The executive warned, however, that in buildings with structural damage, energy will not be available until the corresponding inspection is completed, which may take “weeks or months,” according to CNN.
The administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Deanne Criswell, pointed out that there is still “a long way to go and many people impacted”, including in central Florida, where until Saturday there were flooded houses.
“We’re still actively in the search and rescue phase, trying to make sure we counted everyone that was in the path of the storm and we’ve gone through every house to make sure we don’t leave anyone behind,” Criswell told the Times. ABC chain.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said that he expects the roads and bridges that lead to Pine Island to be fully operational as of October 8, which its nearly 9,000 residents can only access by sea or air for now.
Ian made landfall as a category 4 hurricane, out of a maximum of 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, last Wednesday in Cayo Costa, an island off Pine Island, in Lee County, where the greatest damage from the cyclone is concentrated. and many of its residents are still cut off, without power or drinking water.
The White House announced that the president of the United States, Joe Biden, and the first lady, Jill Biden, will pay a visit to Florida next Wednesday, two days after being in Puerto Rico, which was recently affected by the Hurricane Fiona. EFE
