FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — President Joe Biden will go to Puerto Rico and Florida this week to evaluate injury from separate hurricanes.
A whole bunch of 1000’s of individuals are nonetheless with out energy days after Hurricane Ian made landfall on Florida’s southwestern coast and made its method as much as the Carolinas.
Florida, with practically 4 dozen reported lifeless, was hit hardest by the Class 4 hurricane, one of many strongest to make landfall in the US. Flooded roadways and washed-out bridges to barrier islands left many individuals remoted, amid restricted cellphone service and a scarcity of primary facilities reminiscent of water, electrical energy and the web.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis mentioned Saturday that multibillionaire businessman Elon Musk was offering some 120 Starlink satellites to “assist bridge among the communication points.” Starlink, a satellite-based web system created by Musk’s SpaceX, will present high-speed connectivity.
Florida utilities have been working to revive energy. As of Sunday morning, practically 850,000 properties and companies have been nonetheless with out electrical energy, down from a peak of two.67 million.
The weakened storm had drifted north on Sunday and was anticipated to dump rain on elements of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and southern Pennsylvania, in accordance with the Nationwide Hurricane Heart, which has warned of the potential for flash flooding.
Greater than 1,000 individuals have been rescued from flooded areas alongside Florida’s southwestern coast alone, Daniel Hokanson, a four-star basic and head of the Nationwide Guard, instructed The Related Press whereas airborne to Florida.
The bridge to Pine Island, the biggest barrier island off Florida’s Gulf Coast, was destroyed by the storm, leaving it accessible solely by boat or air. The volunteer group Medic Corps, which responds to pure disasters worldwide with pilots, paramedics and docs, went door-to-door asking residents in the event that they needed to be evacuated.
Some flew out by helicopter, and folks described the horror of being trapped of their properties as water saved rising.
“The water simply saved pounding the home and we watched, boats, homes — we watched every little thing simply go flying by,” Joe Conforti mentioned, combating again tears. He mentioned if it wasn’t for his spouse, who instructed they stand up on a desk to keep away from the rising water, he wouldn’t have made it: “I began to lose sensibility, as a result of when the water’s at your door and it’s splashing on the door and also you’re seeing how briskly it’s shifting, there’s no method you’re going to outlive that.”
River flooding posed a serious problem at occasions to rescue and provide supply efforts. The Myakka River washed over a stretch of Interstate 75, forcing a traffic-snarling freeway closure for some time earlier than officers mentioned later Saturday that it may very well be reopened.
Whereas swollen rivers have crested or are close to cresting, the degrees aren’t anticipated to drop considerably for days, Nationwide Climate Service meteorologist Tyler Fleming mentioned.
Elsewhere, South Carolina’s Pawleys Island, a seashore neighborhood roughly 75 miles (115 kilometers) up the coast from Charleston, was additionally hit laborious. Energy remained knocked out to at the least half the island Saturday.
Eddie Wilder, who has been coming to Pawleys Island for greater than six a long time, mentioned it was “insane” to see waves as excessive as 25 ft (7.6 meters) wash away a landmark pier close to his residence.
“We watched it hit the pier and noticed the pier disappear,” he mentioned. “We watched it crumble and and watched it float by with an American flag.”
Wilder’s home, positioned 30 ft (9 meters) above the shoreline, stayed dry inside.
In North Carolina, the storm downed bushes and energy traces. Two of the 4 deaths within the state have been from storm-related automobile crashes, and the others concerned a person who drowned when his truck plunged right into a swamp and one other killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator in a storage.
Puerto Rico continues to be making an attempt to get well after Hurricane Fiona hit the island on Sept. 16. Greater than 150,000 individuals stay with out energy in Puerto Rico.