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A
section
of the
causeway
leading
to
Sanibel
in Lee
County
was
knocked
out by
Hurricane
Ian. [
Douglas
R.
Clifford
| Times
] |
|
People
trapped,
2.5M
without
power as
Ian
drenches
Florida
By CURT
ANDERSON
apnews.com
ST.
PETERSBURG,
Fla. -
Hurricane
Ian left
a path
of
destruction
in
southwest
Florida,
trapping
people
in
flooded
homes,
cutting
off the
only
bridge
to a
barrier
island,
damaging
the roof
of a
hospital
intensive
care
unit and
knocking
out
power to
2.5
million
people
as it
dumped
rain
across
the
peninsula
on
Thursday.
One of
the
strongest
hurricanes
to ever
hit the
United
States
threatened
catastrophic
flooding
around
the
state.
Ian’s
tropical-storm-force
winds
extended
outward
up to
415
miles
(665
km),
drenching
much of
Florida
and the
southeastern
Atlantic
coast.
Emergency
crews
sawed
through
toppled
trees to
reach
people
in
flooded
homes,
but with
no
electricity
and
virtually
no cell
service,
it was
impossible
for many
people
to call
for help
from the
hardest
hit
coastal
areas
where
the
surge
came in.
“Portable
towers
are on
the way
for cell
service.
Chances
are your
loved
ones do
not have
ability
to
contact
you,”
said the
sheriff’s
office
in
Collier
County,
which
includes
Naples.
“We can
tell you
as
daylight
reveals
the
aftermath,
it’s
going to
be a
hard
day.”
In Lee
County,
which
includes
Fort
Myers,
just
south of
where
Hurricane
Ian made
landfall,
the
sheriff’s
Office
posted a
phone
number
family
and
friends
can call
for
welfare
checks,
and said
“If the
line is
busy,
keep
trying.”
The
National
Hurricane
Center
said Ian
became a
tropical
storm
over
land
early
Thursday
and was
expected
to
regain
near-hurricane
strength
after
emerging
over
Atlantic
waters
near the
Kennedy
Space
Center
later in
the day,
with
South
Carolina
in its
sights
for a
second
U.S.
landfall.
A
stretch
of the
Gulf
Coast
remained
inundated
by ocean
water,
pushed
ashore
by the
massive
storm.
“Severe
and
life-threatening
storm
surge
inundation
of 8 to
10 feet
above
ground
level
along
with
destructive
waves is
ongoing
along
the
southwest
Florida
coastline
from
Englewood
to
Bonita
Beach,
including
Charlotte
Harbor,”
the
Miami-based
hurricane
center
said.
A chunk
of the
Sanibel
Causeway
fell
into the
sea,
cutting
off
access
to the
barrier
island
where
6,300
people
normally
live.
How many
heeded
mandatory
evacuation
orders
was
impossible
to know
in the
storm’s
immediate
aftermath.
Hurricane
Ian
swamps
Southwest
Florida
In Port
Charlotte,
the
storm
surge
flooded
a
hospital’s
emergency
room
even as
fierce
winds
ripped
away
part of
the roof
from its
intensive
care
unit,
according
to a
doctor
who
works
there.
Water
gushed
down
onto the
ICU,
forcing
them to
evacuate
their
sickest
patients
-- some
on
ventilators
— to
other
floors,
said Dr.
Birgit
Bodine
of HCA
Florida
Fawcett
Hospital.
Staff
members
used
towels
and
plastic
bins to
try to
mop up
the
sodden
mess.
The
medium-sized
hospital
spans
four
floors,
but
patients
crowded
into two
because
of the
damage,
and more
were
expected
with
people
injured
from the
storm
needing
help.
“As long
as our
patients
do OK
and
nobody
ends up
dying or
having a
bad
outcome,
that’s
what
matters,”
Bodine
said.
Law
enforcement
officials
in
nearby
Fort
Myers
received
calls
from
people
trapped
in
flooded
homes or
from
worried
relatives.
Pleas
were
also
posted
on
social
media
sites,
some
with
video
showing
debris-covered
water
sloshing
toward
the
eaves of
their
homes.
Brittany
Hailer,
a
journalist
in
Pittsburgh,
contacted
rescuers
about
her
mother
in North
Fort
Myers,
whose
home was
swamped
by 5
feet
(1.5
meters)
of
water.
“We
don’t
know
when the
water’s
going to
go down.
We don’t
know how
they’re
going to
leave,
their
cars are
totaled,”
Hailer
said.
“Her
only way
out is
on a
boat.”
Hurricane
Ian
turned
streets
into
rivers
and blew
down
trees as
it
slammed
into
southwest
Florida
on
Wednesday
with 150
mph (241
kph)
winds,
pushing
a wall
of storm
surge.
Ian’s
strength
at
landfall
was
Category
4, tying
it for
the
fifth-strongest
hurricane,
when
measured
by wind
speed,
ever to
strike
the U.S.
Ian’s
center
came
ashore
more
than 100
miles
(160
kilometers)
south of
Tampa
and St.
Petersburg,
sparing
the
densely
populated
Tampa
Bay area
from its
first
direct
hit by a
major
hurricane
since
1921.
Ian
dropped
to a
tropical
storm
early
Thursday
over
land,
but was
expected
to
intensify
again
once its
center
moves
over the
Atlantic
Ocean
and
menace
the
South
Carolina
coast
Friday
at
near-hurricane
strength
before
moving
inland.
At 5
a.m.
Thursday,
the
storm
was
about 40
miles
(70 km)
southeast
of
Orlando
and 35
miles
(55
kilometers)
southwest
of Cape
Canaveral,
carrying
maximum
sustained
winds of
65 mph
(100 kph)
and
moving
toward
the cape
at 8 mph
(13 kmh),
the
center
said.
Hurricane
warnings
were
lowered
to
tropical
storm
warnings
across
the
Florida
peninsula,
with
widespread,
catastrophic
flooding
remaining
likely,
the
hurricane
center
said.
Storm
surges
as high
as 6
feet (2
meters)
were
still
forecast
for both
coasts.
“It
doesn’t
matter
what the
intensity
of the
storm
is.
We’re
still
expecting
quite a
bit of
rainfall,”
Robbie
Berg,
senior
hurricane
specialist
with the
National
Hurricane
Center,
said in
an
interview
with The
Associated
Press.
Up to a
foot (30
centimeters)
of rain
forecast
for
parts of
Northeast
Florida,
coastal
Georgia
and the
Lowcountry
of South
Carolina.
As much
as 6
inches
(15
centimeters)
could
fall in
southern
Virginia
as the
storm
moves
inland
over the
Carolinas,
and the
center
said
landslides
were
possible
in the
southern
Appalachian
mountains.
No
deaths
were
reported
in the
United
States
from Ian
by late
Wednesday.
But a
boat
carrying
Cuban
migrants
sank
Wednesday
in
stormy
weather
east of
Key
West.
The U.S.
Coast
Guard
initiated
a search
and
rescue
mission
for 23
people
and
managed
to find
three
survivors
about
two
miles
(three
kilometers)
south of
the
Florida
Keys,
officials
said.
Four
other
Cubans
swam to
Stock
Island,
just
east of
Key
West,
the U.S.
Border
Patrol
said.
Air
crews
continued
to
search
for
possibly
20
remaining
migrants.
The
storm
previously
tore
into
Cuba,
killing
two
people
and
bringing
down the
country’s
electrical
grid.
The
hurricane’s
eye made
landfall
near
Cayo
Costa, a
barrier
island
just
west of
heavily
populated
Fort
Myers.
As it
approached,
water
drained
from
Tampa
Bay.
More
than 2.5
million
Florida
homes
and
businesses
were
left
without
electricity,
according
to the
PowerOutage.us
site.
Most of
the
homes
and
businesses
in 12
counties
were
without
power.
Sheriff
Bull
Prummell
of
Charlotte
County,
just
north of
Fort
Myers,
announced
a curfew
between
9 p.m.
and 6
a.m.
“for
life-saving
purposes,”
saying
violators
may face
second-degree
misdemeanor
charges.
“I am
enacting
this
curfew
as a
means of
protecting
the
people
and
property
of
Charlotte
County,”
Prummell
said.
Life-threatening
storm
surges
and
hurricane
conditions
were
possible
on
Thursday
and
Friday
along
the
coasts
of
northeast
Florida,
Georgia,
and
South
Carolina,
where
Ian was
expected
to move
inland,
dumping
more
rain
well in
from the
coast,
the
hurricane
center
said.
The
governors
of South
Carolina,
North
Carolina,
Georgia
and
Virginia
all
preemptively
declared
states
of
emergency.
___
Associated
Press
contributors
include
Christina
Mesquita
in
Havana,
Cuba;
Cody
Jackson
and
Adriana
Gomez
Licon in
Tampa,
Florida;
Freida
Frisaro
in
Miami;
Anthony
Izaguirre
in
Tallahassee,
Florida;
Mike
Schneider
in
Orlando,
Florida;
Seth
Borenstein
and
Aamer
Madhani
in
Washington;
Bobby
Caina
Calvan
in New
York;
Andrew
Welsh-Huggins
in
Columbus,
Ohio;
Jay
Reeves
in
Birmingham,
Alabama,
and
Alina
Hartounian
in
Phoenix,
Arizona.
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