florida Turned in destruction Floods, big waves & Hurricane Ian hits Fort Myers

florida Turned in destruction! Floods, big waves & Hurricane Ian hits Fort Myers

Foreign dozens of florida residents left their flooded and splintered homes by boat and by air on saturday as rescuers continued to search for survivors in the wake of hurricane ian while authorities in south carolina and north carolina began taking stock of their losses the death toll from the storm one of the strongest hurricanes by wind speed to ever hit

The u.s grew to more than four dozen with 47 deaths confirmed in florida four in north carolina and three in cuba the storm weakens saturday as it rolled into the mid-atlantic but not before it washed out bridges and piers hurdled massive boats into buildings on shore and sheared roofs off homes leaving hundreds of thousands without power the bulk of the debts

Confirmed in florida were from drowning in storm waters but others from ian’s tragic after effects an older couple died when they lost power and their oxygen machine shut off authorities said as of saturday more than one thousand people had been rescued from flooded areas along florida’s southwestern coast alone daniel hulkinson a four-star general and head

Of the national guard told the associated press while airborne to florida later in the evening the white house announced that president joe biden and first lady jill biden would travel to florida on wednesday no other details of biden’s visit were immediately released chris schnapp was at the port sanibel marina in fort myers on saturday waiting to see whether

Her 83 year old mother-in-law had been evacuated from sanibel island a pontoon boat arrived carrying a load of passengers from the island with suitcases and animals in tow but schnapp’s mother-in-law was not among them she stayed on the island my brother-in-law and sister-in-law owned two businesses over there they evacuated she did not want to go schnapp said

Now she wasn’t sure if her mother-in-law was still on the island or had been taken to a shelter somewhere on pine island the largest barrier island off florida’s gulf coast houses were reduced to splinters and boats littered roadways as a volunteer rescue group went door to door asking residents if they wanted to be evacuated people described the horror of being

Trapped in their homes as water kept rising the water just kept pounding the house and we watched boats houses we watched everything just go flying by joe conforti said as he fought back tears he said if it wasn’t for his wife who suggested they get up on a table to avoid the rising water he wouldn’t have made it 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 river flooding posed a major challenge at times to rescue and supply delivery efforts the mayaka river washed over a stretch of interstate 75 forcing a traffic snarling highway closure for a while the key corridor links tampa to

The north with the hard hit southwest florida region that straddles port charlotte and fort myers later saturday state officials said water levels had receded enough but i-75 could be fully reopened while rising waters in florida’s southwest rivers have crested or are near cresting the levels aren’t expected to drop significantly for days said national weather

Service meteorologist tyler fleming in tampa elsewhere south carolina’s pawleys island a beach community roughly 75 miles 115 kilometers up the coast from charleston was among the place’s hardest hit power remained knocked out to at least half of the island saturday eddie wilder who has been coming to paulie’s island for more than six decades said friday’s storm

Was insane he said waves as high as 25 feet 7.6 meters washed away the local pier and iconic landmark we watched it hit the pier and saw the pier disappear said wilder whose house 30 feet 9 meters above the ocean stayed dry inside we watched it crumble and then watched it float by with an american flag at port sanibel marina in fort myers charter boat captain

Ryan kane inspected damage to two boats saturday the storm surge pushed several boats and a dock on shore he said the boat he owns was totaled so he couldn’t use it to help rescue people now it would be a long time before he’d be chartering fishing clients again and tolbert and her cousins had no power two days after hurricane ian made landfall so they cooled off

In the shade of a compact suv trunk friday afternoon in front of the house they lived in dunbar a historically black area of fort myers that also houses a growing hispanic and latino population the roads were uprooted trees straggled power lines piles of fence remnants and storm debris from ian’s category for wins every time we have a storm we’re the last ones

To get power said tolbert’s cousin black residents of dunbar said they feared the aftermath of hurricane ian will be no different saying the city’s wealthier majority white neighborhoods typically have better power grids and get power back sooner that’s going to be number one priority anything where it’s majority people of color it’s going to be last about 1.3

Million floridians remained without power saturday officials said during a weekend press conference florida power and light company said it’s working on restoring power to affected customers reporting as of 10 am it has restored power where possible to two-thirds of customers according to a saturday press release from the company with about 700 000 remaining the

Company estimated power for most customers in fort myers lee county okay we’re about 73 of households still lack power would be restored by saturday the road is challenging but we won’t back down and we won’t stop working until every customer is restored eric salagi ceo and chairman said in a press release still dunbar residents have grown accustomed to relying

On themselves and looking out for each other tolbert concerts gasoline usage only running the generator for the refrigerator she keeps the windows open at night to let brisk air in we can survive off anything tolbert said a few minutes away off michigan avenue half a mile north of the lee county black history society lives lori and thurman she’s a truck driver

At a waste management facility that she says is now underwater on level fort myers beach i’ve been here all my life but this was the most traumatic storm ever trees down and people’s windows blowing out of their house she said ian was very disrespectful because he didn’t just come and go he just stayed right there look at this he made sure he came to show you that

God is still in control the dunbar area was an evacuation zone c and d while risks are less the zones are still vulnerable to serious hurricane damage but storm preparation to weather any aftermath can be difficult for low-income households everybody don’t have or couldn’t go out and get what they needed because they didn’t have the finances christina delmaison

Front desk manager of the lanikai said she saw water from the storm surge rises high as two stories after evacuating guests she and about 30 other employees and family members braved the storm from the second floor of the building technically the third story because the resort stands on stilts and we saw everything get swept away farther from the beach on the

Other side of estero boulevard most buildings appeared to remain standing the structure of a 7-eleven was still intact but the interior had been swept away the whale the colorful blue and orange seafood restaurant shown below had crumpled and fallen over it had been a popular place for both the ocean view and its homemade food as the death toll continued to rise

Friday from hurricane ian search and rescue teams began turning attention to the inland counties of southwest florida where a dangerously engorged river collapsed a bridge trapped residents in homes and destroyed businesses the overflowing peace river had already flooded to historic levels swapping arcadia in desoto county deport agricultural region often known

As florida’s heartland in arcadia enrique sanchez’s painting business and machine shop were lost his two buildings are normally about a tenth of a mile from the banks of the river like many floridians he does not have flood insurance all my equipment everything is gone said sanchez who has lived in desoto county for more than three decades as he surveyed the

Damage friday afternoon we never thought we would have this kind of flooding it all turned into a laguna lake he added this is so so bad hurricane ian made landfall near punta gorda in charlotte county on wednesday with winds of 155 miles per hour in torrential rains a storm that could be the deadliest most costly storm to ever hit southwest florida the peace

River which meanders south through hardy and desoto counties before flowing into charlotte harbor at punta gorda broke the previous record of 20 feet on thursday on friday it reached a peak of nearly 24 feet and was slowly receding according to the national weather service the river’s water level is normally about 12 feet the river is not forecast to return to

Normal levels for another week or so the river is 300 yards out of its bank said arcadia police lieutenant troy carrillo who on friday afternoon was going door to door making sure people in flooded homes had left the danger in the rural counties was apparent as more than one thousand rescue personnel members were continuing to comb homes across florida governor

Ron desantis had a press briefing on friday morning said they are going to be doing more and more inland searches in some of our counties inland portions of charlotte and lee but also hardy in desoto counties there were effects far inland these rescue personnel are sensitive to that desantis said 99 of hardy was without electricity and about 70 percent of desoto’s

Customers in hardy county sheriff and crawford told wftsabc that a florida highway patrol trooper was driving over the state route 64 bridge overnight when it collapsed because of the rising waters he swam to safety in the dark really and truly it’s probably today at a historical high if not the highest ever crawford told the station after landfall ian cut directly

Through hardy causing the river’s waters to spill out submerging roads inundating cars and rising to the level of roofs in the town of wachula it’s the worst i’ve ever seen it i’ve been here 62 years and the river has never been this high ever one watila resident len miller told wfts as he was driving his high four-wheel drive truck to help people escape their

Homes back in desoto county county officials and flyers distributed throughout the rural county warned that the river had encrusted yet making already flooded areas even more dangerous two residential neighborhoods hidden acres and river acres have been submerged the desoto county sheriff’s office said it had rescued at least 24 people from those areas mainly

Using air boats no debts or missing persons have been reported so far it looks like the peace river is going to crest in a day or two we are seeing unprecedented flooding and this is historic i am talking to people who have been here for 90 years no one has seen anything like that said chad jorgensen public safety director for desoto county

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florida Turned in destruction! Floods, big waves & Hurricane Ian hits Fort Myers By Lebak Tv