The Latest on Hurricane Ian:
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke by telephone Thursday morning to discuss next steps in the federal response to Hurricane Ian.
Biden formally issued a disaster declaration Thursday morning and told DeSantis that he was dispatching Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell to Florida on Friday to check in on response efforts and to gauge where additional support will be needed.
Meanwhile, officials at Tampa International Airport tweeted that damage assessments are underway there and that they hope to have an update later Thursday on plans to reopen.
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS:
— Hurricane Ian leaves destruction in southwest Florida
— Ian strikes Florida hospital from above and below
— Search on for migrants after boat sinks off Florida Keys
— Cuba begins to turn on lights
— Find more AP coverage here: https://apnews.com/hub/hurricanes
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The U.S. Coast Guard began performing hurricane rescue missions on barrier islands off southwest Florida early Thursday, as soon as the winds died down, Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference.
“The Coast Guard had people who were in their attics and got saved off their rooftops,” DeSantis said. The most vulnerable areas were along the barrier islands of Lee, Charlotte and Collier counties, along with inlets and inland areas along rivers.
Power failures from Hurricane Ian are significant, he said. Two counties, Lee and Charlotte, “are basically off the grid at this point,” the governor said, and will likely have to rebuild the power structure.
“We’ve never seen storm surge of this magnitude,” DeSantis said. “The amount of water that’s been rising, and will likely continue to rise today even as the storm is passing, is basically a 500-year flooding event.”
An earlier report of hundreds of deaths in Lee County has not been confirmed and was likely an estimate based on 911 calls, the governor said.
DeSantis said he will ask the federal government to expand its emergency declaration to cover counties in central Florida that are also reporting damage.
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NAPLES, Fla. — The Naples Pier, a top tourist destination, has been destroyed by Hurricane Ian, with even the pilings torn out, a county official said Thursday.
The storm sent waves of at least 20 feet over the historic structure, said Penny Taylor, a commission in Collier County.
“Right now, there is no pier,” Taylor said.
Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told CBS News on Thursday that the agency has “put together a large search and rescue capability” and that searchers are combing areas of southwest Florida where people may be trapped.
To the north in the Tampa Bay area, officials lifted evacuation orders. Beachfront communities around St. Petersburg and Clearwater emerged largely unscathed, with the main damage being toppled trees and power lines, officials said.
But with the storm still marching across the state, highway officials closed the Florida Turnpike in the Orlando area because of flooding.
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FORT MYERS, Fla. — Valerie Bartley’s neighborhood in the Fort Myers area had been under an evacuation order ahead of Hurricane Ian, but she felt it was too late to leave Tuesday with no plans in place.
As the strong storm passed overhead, she and her husband had to push their dining room table against a sliding door leading to the back patio because they felt the wind was going to blow it into the house, she said in a telephone interview Thursday.
“My husband just sat there and held it for two hours,” said Bartley, 36.
“I was terrified through it. What we heard was the shingles and debris from everything in the neighborhood hitting our house. It sounded like the shingles were being ripped out,” she said.
Bartley said her 4-year-old daughter gave her courage. “She grabbed my hand and said, ‘I am scared, too, but it is going to be OK.’”
Their patio was torn apart, with some sections missing, and trees were down in their back yard, but their own roof and house stayed mostly intact.
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FORT MYERS, Fla. — In Lee County, home to the city of Fort Myers, rescue officials said they were overwhelmed with calls for rescues and feared significant fatalities.
Sheriff Carmine Marceno told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that there had been thousands of calls to 911.
Rescues have been underway, he said, but “we still cannot access many of the people in the waterways, bridges are compromised, and it’s a real real rough road ahead.”
Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson told NBC’s “Today” that he has not been told of any deaths in the city, though there may have been some elsewhere in the metro area.
Anderson said that he has been in the area since the 1970s and that this was by far the worst storm he has ever witnessed.
“Watching the water from my condo in the heart of downtown, watching that water rise and just flood out all the stores on the first floor, it was heartbreaking,” Anderson said.
