Health

Hurricane Ian devastated Florida leaving 2 million people without electricity, many trapped in their homes


Hurricane Ian is slamming through Florida, leaving a trail of terror after it hit as many people are still trapped in their flooded homes and two million people are without power.

Helpless Floridians desperately called their loved ones and the police, begging to be rescued from their home as they watched as water flooded through the door and began to rise dangerously higher and higher.

Streets have turned into rivers, with high tides flooding the emergency room of HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital in Port Charlotte, while fierce winds tore part of the fourth-floor roof of the intensive care unit.

Dr Birgit Bodine, who has camped out at the hospital to help patients, said water spilled from above into the ICU, forcing staff to evacuate the hospital’s sickest patients – some of them in use a ventilator – go to other floors.

The devastating storm blew ashore with tremendous force Wednesday afternoon as a Category 4 hurricane, bringing with it 150 mph sustained winds and shabby homes with 18ft walls of water in some areas. . The cost of site clearance is up to billions of dong.

The storm, one of the strongest hurricanes ever to make landfall in the United States, significantly decreased in strength after nightfall and was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 90 mph. It is moving towards the Atlantic Ocean at 10 km/h and is expected to emerge in the waters later today.

But the slow-moving storm was continuing to bring downpours as it crept inland, trapping thousands – believed to be thousands – in their flooded homes.

Hurricane Ian is slamming through Florida, leaving a trail of terror after it hit as many people remain trapped in their flooded homes and two million people are without power

Video footage of the storm’s rampage on local television and social media showed floodwaters nearly reaching the roofs of some communities, washing away cars and the wreckage of homes. when the palm tree is bent almost in half. In the photo: Images from the video show an orange roof of a house floating down a flooded street in Naples

A flooded street is seen downtown as Hurricane Ian makes landfall in southwestern Florida, in Fort Myers

Debris from the storm strewn across the street after Hurricane Ian September 28, 2022 in Sarasota, Florida

A time-lapse video from Fort Myers shows devastating floodwaters flowing in and flooding streets

Hurricane Ian passed through Naval Air Station (NAS) Key West on the night of September 27, causing flood damage and forcing the evacuation of Navy personnel and families.

A flooded street is seen downtown as Hurricane Ian makes landfall in southwestern Florida, in Fort Myers on Wednesday

Florida’s idyllic southwest coast, dotted with sandy beaches, seaside towns and mobile home parks, quickly turned into a disaster zone flooded with seawater.

Video footage of the storm’s rampage on local television and social media showed floodwaters nearly reaching the roofs of some communities, washing away cars and the wreckage of homes. when the palm tree is bent almost in half.

Fire crews and police officers were inundated with calls from people trapped in flooded homes, while others posted on social media begging themselves or loved ones to be rescued later. when they chose to weather the storm at home instead of heeding an evacuation order.

But rescue teams have been unable to reach them so far due to severe winds and flooding, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said.

Video posted on social media showed water flooding debris on the ground floors of homes, prompting residents to rush to higher floors.

Brittany Hailer, a journalist in Pittsburgh, contacted rescuers about her mother in North Fort Myers, whose home was 5 feet deep.

‘We don’t know when the water will come down. We don’t know how they’re going to leave, it’s their car in total,” Hailer said. ‘Her only way out is by boat.’

The storm warning remains in effect north of Bonita Beach, about 31 miles south of Fort Myers, to the Anclote River including Tampa Bay, and from Sebastian Inlet to the Flagler/Volusia county line.

The Center has suspended storm warnings between Bonita Beach and Chokoloskee. Tropical storm warnings from Chokoloskee to Flamingo at the southwestern tip of the state were also suspended.

‘This storm is having a huge impact on the state of Florida,’ said Governor Ron DeSantis, who asked President Joe Biden to approve a major federal disaster declaration providing a range of emergency US aid payments. for the entire state.

There were no deaths reported in the United States from Ian late Wednesday. But a boat carrying Cuban migrants sank Wednesday in stormy weather east of Key West.

A flooded street is seen downtown as Hurricane Ian makes landfall in southwest Florida, in Fort Myers, Florida, on Wednesday

Panoramic view of docks damaged by high waves, wind and rain on the banks of the Caloosahatchee River as Hurricane Ian makes landfall in southwestern Florida

A man walks among fallen palm leaves and debris on a downtown street as Hurricane Ian makes landfall in southwest Florida, in Fort Myers, Florida

People play in the breaking waves in the Malecon, after Hurricane Ian in Havana, Cuba on Wednesday

The US Coast Guard initiated a 23-person search and rescue mission and found three survivors about two miles south of the Florida Keys, officials said.

Four other Cubans swam to Stock Island, just east of Key West, the US Border Patrol said. Crews continue to search for there may be 20 migrants left.

The previous storm tore through Cuba, killing two people and knocking down the country’s electricity grid.

The eye of the storm made landfall near Cayo Costa, a barrier island just west of the densely populated Fort Myers. As it approached, water gushed out from Tampa Bay.

More than 2 million homes and businesses in Florida are without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us. Nearly every home and business in the three counties is without electricity.

The town of Punta Gorda, north of Fort Myers, was in near complete darkness after the storm wiped out power, saving some buildings with generators.

Charlotte County Sheriff Bull Prummell, just north of Fort Myers, announced a 9pm-6am curfew ‘for the sake of saving lives’, saying violators could face charges mild grade two.

“I am issuing this curfew as a measure to protect the people and property of Charlotte County,” Prummell said.

Weather Underground predicts the storm will pass near Daytona Beach and enter the Atlantic Ocean before returning to the coast in South Carolina on Friday.

The governors of South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia all declared a state of emergency in advance. Forecasters expect Ian to turn toward those states as a tropical storm, potentially bringing more torrential downpours over the weekend.

Meanwhile, at 10 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, gusts of wind and light rain were still pounding Venice, Florida, a city of about 25,000 residents about 32 miles from where Ian first landed on Cayo Costa Island. northwest seven hours earlier.

The larger structures are mostly intact, but the small residential areas off Highway 41, the lifeline through the area, have been left in ruins.

Trees fell and power lines covered the roads so that the asphalt could not be seen, some houses had their roofs blown off and water flooded residential areas from all directions.

A large area of ​​land in front of the Winn Dixie grocery store has become a lake, with streams of water scum white to the trunks of some of the cars parked there. Electricity has been lost in larger parts of the region, with communication nearly impossible in many places.

After hitting Cuba on Tuesday, leaving the island nation without power for hours, Ian spilled into the Southeast Gulf of Mexico and reached peak wind speeds of 155 mph, just short of the Category 5 designation, shortly before dumping walk into Florida on Wednesday.

DeSantis said Ian has produced life-threatening storm surges – waves of sea water driven by winds blowing in along the coast – of up to 12 feet in some places. Forecasters also warned of severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes.

“This is a storm we’ll be talking about for years to come, a historic event,” said Ken Graham, Director of the National Weather Service.

By comparison, Hurricane Michael made landfall on Florida’s shores in 2018 with steady winds of 155 mph, while Ida last year packed 150 mph sustained winds as it made landfall in Louisiana.

Even as Ian hit the shore before it finally washed ashore, authorities warned residents that it was too late for those who hadn’t been able to safely evacuate. Earlier this week, more than 2.5 million residents were told to evacuate.

Many mobile home residents have taken shelter in local schools and other facilities converted into emergency shelters. Many assisted living facilities in the area have also mostly been evacuated.



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