Hurricane Ian death toll continues to climb, 74 dead in Florida

The death toll from the devastation wrought last week by Hurricane Ian continued to rise Sunday as rescue operations are still underway in areas stretching from Florida to the Carolinas. Some neighborhoods were left completely destroyed.

Officials said the storm that made landfall last week in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, has killed at least 74 people in that state and four more in North Carolina. More than 850,000 Floridians awoke with no electrical power Sunday to homes and businesses.

Ian also took three lives in Cuba. Residents reported a lack of basic amenities such as water, electricity and internet services, issues that may be further hampered by still-flooded roadways.

Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Sunday that Florida victims would be helped first, with President Biden planning to visit the state this week.

“Our focus right now is supporting the people of Florida that have had the most significant impacts from this storm. But we also have teams that have been embedded pre-landfall in North Carolina, South Carolina, to make sure that if they had immediate needs, we were able to respond,” Criswell said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“But right now, we’ve got a lot of staff, we got a lot of resources that are embedded across the state in Florida making sure that we are continuing the first priority, which is saving as many lives as possible and getting the immediate assistance out to those that need it right now the most.”

Rescue workers in Florida, including the volunteer group Medic Corps, found residents of Pine Island devastated after powerful winds and gushing water destroyed the bridge connecting the barrier island to the mainland. Survivors there described a life-threatening predicament where boats, homes and debris gave way to rushing flood waters.

More than 1,000 people have been rescued along Florida’s southwestern coast, officials said.

“I started to lose sensibility, because when the water’s at your door and it’s splashing on the door and you’re seeing how fast it’s moving, there’s no way you’re going to survive that,” Joe Conforti told the Associated Press.

Conforti said he and his wife stood on a table in their home as their floors filled with water. Residents on that island could only be evacuated by boat or airlift.

Charter captain Ryan Kane in Fort Meyers, Fla., said his vessel had taken such a beating that it was inoperable as a rescue ship.

“You know, boats are supposed to be in the water, not in parking lots,” he told the AP.

It could be days before inland highways can be cleared of high water that had rendered them unusable, the National Weather Service said.

Power was also lost to half of Pawleys Island located roughly 75 miles outside of Charleston, S.C., over the weekend. At least one resident there claimed to have seen waves reaching 25 feet high.

Storms wiped out trees and power lines in North Carolina, where two people died in storm-related auto crashes. Another man there drowned when his truck was washed into a swamp. A fourth fatality in the Tar Heel State was attributed to carbon monoxide poisoning from an indoor generator.

[ Leonard Greene: Florida needs our help, despite its zany governor ]

A message on Biden’s Twitter feed offered assurance to Floridians that they would not face the wrath of Hurricane Ian alone.

“We’re beginning to see the scale of the devastation in Florida which is likely to rank among the worst in the nation’s history,” the tweet said. “Our hearts break for the folks whose lives have been devastated by this storm. We are with you. And we’ll stay at it for as long as it takes.”

Breaking News

As it happens

Get updates on the coronavirus pandemic and other news as it happens with our free breaking news email alerts.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Saturday that billionaire and Tesla founder Elon Musk committed 120 Starlink satellites to augmenting the lines of communication in the Sunshine State. DeSantis also reminded those looking to take advantage of the state’s troubles that “looting and lawlessness will not be tolerated.”

On ABC’s “This Week” Sunday, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was asked to compare Hurricane Ian to other storms that have passed through his state.

“Well, I don’t think it has a comparison, not for Florida,” Rubio said.

The Republican lawmaker said Fort Myers Beach, as Floridians know it, “no longer exists” and that Sanibel was “basically flattened.”

Rubio lamented that even when historic areas devastated by water and winds are made useable again, they will never be the same. But he added that’s a problem for another day.

“Obviously, the human toll is still being calculated, and that has no price,” he said. “It’s extraordinary and we fear that number will continue to rise.”

With News Wire Services