 |
| Photo Credit: AP. |
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Rescuers searched for survivors among the ruins of Florida’s flooded homes from Hurricane Ian while authorities in South Carolina waited for daylight to assess damage from the storm’s second strike as the remnants of one of the strongest and costliest disasters to ever hit the U.S. continued to push north.
The powerful
storm terrorized millions of people for most of the week, battering western
Cuba before raking across Florida from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico to
the Atlantic Ocean, where it mustered enough strength for a final assault on
South Carolina. It has since weakened to a still-dangerous post-tropical
cyclone and was crossing North Carolina toward Virginia overnight, pushing
heavy rains toward the Mid-Atlantic states.
At least 30
people were confirmed dead, including 27 people in Florida mostly from drowning
but others from the storm’s tragic aftereffects. An elderly couple died after
their oxygen machines shut off when they lost power, authorities said.
Meanwhile, distraught residents waded through knee-high water on Friday,
salvaging what possessions they could from their flooded homes and loading them
onto rafts and canoes.
“I want to sit in the corner and cry. I don’t
know what else to do,” Stevie Scuderi said after shuffling through her mostly
destroyed Fort Myers apartment, the mud in her kitchen clinging to her purple
sandals.
In South
Carolina, Ian’s center came ashore near Georgetown, a small community along the
Winyah Bay about 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of historic Charleston. The
storm washed away parts of four piers along the coast, including two connected
to the popular tourist town of Myrtle Beach.
The storm’s
winds were much weaker on Friday than during Ian’s landfall on Florida’s Gulf
Coast earlier in the week. There authorities and volunteers were still
assessing the damage as shocked residents tried to make sense of what they just
lived through.
Anthony
Rivera, 25, said he had to climb through the window of his first floor
apartment during the storm to carry his grandmother and girlfriend to the
second floor. As they hurried to escape the rising water, the storm surge had
washed a boat right up next to his apartment.
“That’s the scariest thing in the world
because I can’t stop no boat,” he said. “I’m not Superman.”
Even though
Ian has long passed over Florida, new problems continued to arise. A 14-mile
(22-kilometer) stretch of major Interstate 75 was closed late Friday in both
directions in the Port Charlotte area because of the huge amount of water
swelling the Myakka River.
The official
death toll climbed throughout the day on Friday, with authorities warning it
would likely rise much higher once crews made a more comprehensive sweep of the
damage. Searches on Friday were aimed at emergency rescues and initial
assessments, Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie
said. He described one submerged home as an example.
“The water
was up over the rooftop, right, but we had a Coast Guard rescue swimmer swim
down into it and he could identify that it appeared to be human remains. We do
not know exactly how many,” Guthrie said.
The dead
included a 68-year-old woman swept into the ocean by a wave and a 67-year-old
man who who fell into rising water inside his home while awaiting rescue.
Authorities
also said a 22-year-old woman died after an ATV rollover from a road washout
and a 71-year-old man suffered a fatal fall from a rooftop while putting up
rain shutters. Another three people died in Cuba earlier in the week.
Hurricane
Ian has likely caused “well over $100 billion” in damage, including $63 billion
in privately insured losses, according to the disaster modeling firm Karen
Clark & Company, which regularly issues flash catastrophe estimates. If
those numbers are borne out, that would make Ian at least the fourth costliest
hurricane in U.S. history.
In the
Sarasota suburb of North Point, Florida, residents of the Country Club Ridge
subdivision waded Friday through waterlogged streets. John Chihil solemnly
towed a canoe and another small boat through the ankle-deep water.
“There’s really not much to feel. It’s an act
of God, you know?” he said. “I mean, that’s all you can do is pray and hope for
a better day tomorrow.”
Gomez Licon
reported from Punta Gorda, Florida; Associated Press contributors include
Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida, Terry Spencer, Tim Reynolds and in
Fort Myers, Florida; Cody Jackson in Tampa, Florida; Freida Frisaro in Miami;
Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida; Daniel Kozin in North Port, Florida; Seth
Borenstein in Washington; Bobby Caina Calvan in New York and Jeffrey Collins in
Columbia, South Carolina.