CHARLESTON, S.C. — A renewed Hurricane Ian slammed into the South Carolina coast on Friday, snapping piers and flooding streets after the ferocious storm wreaked havoc in Florida, trapping thousands of people in their homes and leaving at least 17 dead.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said the dead included a 22-year-old woman who overturned on her ATV due to a washed-out road on Friday, and a 71-year-old man who died earlier of head injuries when he fell from a roof while installing rain shutters. Many of the other deaths were drownings, including a 68-year-old woman who was swept into the ocean by a wave.
Three more people died in Cuba earlier in the week as the storm headed north. The death toll is expected to rise significantly as emergency responders are able to search many of the worst-hit areas.
Ian’s center came ashore near Georgetown, South Carolina, with much weaker winds than when it crossed Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday, as one of the strongest storms ever to hit the U.S. As Ian moved through South Carolina, it passed from from a hurricane to a post-tropical cyclone.
The rains knocked down trees and power lines and left many areas of the peninsula in downtown Charleston under water. Parts of four piers along the coast, including two in Myrtle Beach, collapsed and were washed away. Online cameras showed neighborhoods in Garden City filled with seawater up to calf level.
Ian left a wide swath of destruction across Florida, inundating areas on both coasts, tearing homes off their slabs, destroying coastal businesses and leaving more than 2 million people without power.
Rescuers manned boats and waded through Florida’s river streets after the storm to rescue thousands of people trapped among flooded homes and destroyed buildings.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that crews have visited more than 3,000 homes in the worst-hit areas.
“It was a truly Herculean effort,” he said during a news conference in Tallahassee.
Officials fear that the death toll could rise significantly given the large area covered by the storm.
Among those killed were an 80-year-old woman and a 94-year-old man who were relying on oxygen machines that stopped working due to the power outage, as well as a 67-year-old man who was waiting for rescue and fell in. Authorities said his home was flooded. .
Florida Department of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said first responders for now are focusing on a “hurried” search focused on emergency rescue and initial assessment, with two additional waves of searches to follow. First responders who encounter possible remains leave them unconfirmed, he said Friday, citing the case of a submerged house as an example.
“The water was rising above the roof, yes, but we had a Coast Guard rescue swimmer who swam into it and he was able to identify what appeared to be human remains. We don’t know exactly how much,” Guthrie said.
Desperate to find and save their loved ones, social media users have shared the phone numbers, addresses and photos of their family members and friends online for anyone to check.
Orlando residents returned to their flooded homes Friday, rolling up their pants to wade through knee-high muddy water on their streets. Friends of Ramon Rodriguez dropped ice, bottled water and hot coffee at the entrance to his subdivision, where 10 of 50 homes were flooded and the road looked like a lake. He had no electricity or food at home, and his car was under water.
“Water is everywhere,” Rodriguez said. “The situation here is pretty bad.”
https://www.limaohio.com/news/2022/09/30/floridas-death-toll-climbs/
