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| Photo Credit; AP. |
NORTH PORT, Fla. (AP) — As Hurricane Ian ravaged coastal towns in southwest Florida, residents in this quiet suburb thought they would be safe, having no beach and living outside areas under evacuation orders. But then the water kept flowing in.
Since Ian’s
passage, water levels have gone up significantly, turning roads into canals,
reaching mailboxes, flooding SUVs and trucks, blocking the main access to a an
interstate highway and leaving families trapped in their waterlogged homes.
Now, as days go by, residents here in the Sarasota suburb of North Point are
beginning to run out of food and water.
“Water just
keeps going up. Who knows when it is going to stop,” said Samuel Almanzar, 42.
He was rescued by crews Friday along with his father, wife and two children, 11
and 6.
As rescue
efforts wrapped up Friday, local officials recommended people whose
neighborhoods are flooding to evacuate. They said waters in some areas will
continue to rise over the next two days.
The floods
in North Port show the impact of Ian has not been confined to the beaches and
tourist towns. The heavy rains from the storm have ended up flowing into
suburban and inland towns not part of hurricane warnings.
It’s the
rising rivers that do it because of the hurricane’s deluge, which continues to
cause havoc long after the winds have passed. And it’s leading to rescue
efforts not that different from those on the coasts.
Floods were
reported all across the center of the state: around Orlando and its theme
parks, south to Kissimmee, east to Daytona Beach, Arcadia cattle country.
People near rivers were deeply affected.
Near North
Port, the Florida Department of Transportation closed a stretch of Interstate
75 in both directions late Friday because of the flooded Myakka River.
Dozens of
National Guardsmen arrived earlier Friday in North Port— about 85 miles (140
kilometers) south of Tampa — to speed up efforts started Wednesday by
firefighters from other states and counties. And city officials were scrambling
to open an evacuation center at a high school.
A mother of
two cried on the phone, trying to connect with her parents so they could pick
them up after coming out of her flooded neighborhood. A woman showed a map to
rescuers to reach families with children in the area upon learning water had
started to rise inside their homes. A man waded through waist-deep waters with
his 8-year-old daughter, trying to venture out to get supplies.
Megan
Blevins, who works at a restaurant in nearby Venice, was trying to help the
families of coworkers get out but said some were not accessible due to
structures collapsing and leaving certain streets without access.
“We can’t get people. We can’t get people to
them. There are some older folks we are trying to get to because they can’t
move,” she said.
Aimee
Bowden, 47, said a tree fell on her house, opening a hole in her kitchen and
dining room and letting water pour in. Firefighters going back and forth to
pick up families with children evacuated her, with her husband and 13-year-old
son in a rescue boat.
“I was terrified. You have your whole life
uprooted,” Bowden said. “You try to just keep thinking about what you need to
do.”
Just west of
North Port, the Myakka River was forecast by the National Weather Service to
reach record flood stage Friday at 12.55 feet (3.8 meters) and then crest a bit
higher before receding.
The nearby
Peace River was set to hit an even higher mark: almost 24 feet (7.3 meters),
which is about twice the previous record. It runs through mainly rural areas,
especially the cattle town of Arcadia which is home to a well-known Florida
rodeo.
There was
plenty of concern Friday about the steadily rising river.
“The
unpredictability of the river is real, and people are in real danger,” said
DeSoto County Fire Chief Chad Jorgensen in a county post. “If you are in these
areas, you need to get out now.”
After
crossing Florida, Ian moved over the Atlantic Ocean where it curved back into
South Carolina on Friday. More than two dozen deaths have been blamed on the
storm.
Elvis
Padron, 40, a construction worker now applying for political asylum, fled
Venezuela with his wife and 8-year-old daughter and crossed the U.S.-Mexico
border in February, only to face more hardship.
“My wife
refuses to leave. She wants to stay,” said Padron, who waded through the waters
to find more supplies and tried to convince his wife on the phone they should
leave. “I feel like we don’t have much time left.”
Anderson
reported from St. Petersburg, Florida.