The United States discovered Thursday the “historic” damage of the powerful hurricane Ian, which “devastated” certain cities of Florida and could have caused the death of two people, according to the governor of this state.
“We have two deaths that are not yet confirmed because we don’t know if they are related to the storm,” although it is “probable,” said state Governor Ron DeSantis. “We have never seen floods like this,” he said.
“Some of these areas, Cape Coral, the city of Fort Myers, were really flooded and really devastated by this storm,” the governor continued, referring to “historic” damage.
Ian, since downgraded to a tropical storm, made landfall Wednesday afternoon as a Category 4 hurricane (on a scale of 5) in southwest Florida, before continuing its passage through the state, carrying strong winds and torrential rains.
It is still too early to draw up an assessment, but some material damage was already visible a few hours after the passage of the hurricane.
>> Review the report from 12:45 p.m.:
Millions of homes without electricity
Thursday morning, more than 2.6 million homes or businesses remained without electricity, out of a total of 11 million, according to the specialized site PowerOutage.
Punta Gorda, a small coastal town located in the path of the hurricane, woke up without power. As firefighters and police roamed the streets to assess the damage, a bulldozer cleared fallen palm branches.
Ian uprooted some trees and knocked down utility poles and street signs. Its rains flooded the streets of the marina, where the water still reached the calves Thursday morning.
>> Also listen to the report from La Matinale:
State of “major natural disaster”
Faced with the extent of the damage, US President Joe Biden declared a state of major natural disaster on Thursday morning, a decision to release additional federal funds for the affected regions.
“This could be the deadliest hurricane in Florida history,” he said during a visit to the offices of the federal agency that fights natural disasters, FEMA.
“The figures (…) are not yet clear but we are receiving initial reports of human losses which could be substantial”, he added, assuring that he wanted to go to the southern state as soon as possible. , but also on the island of Puerto Rico, recently damaged by Hurricane Fiona.
Research was continuing in particular to find twenty passengers of a migrant boat which capsized on Wednesday near the archipelago of the Keys.
Two meters of water
In Naples, images from the MSNBC channel showed completely flooded streets and cars floating in the current.
The Southwest Florida town’s fire chief, Pete DiMara, told CNN that his fire station was suddenly flooded by up to two meters of water, preventing his crews from responding to calls. emergency.
Slightly away from the hurricane’s path, near the US archipelago of the Keys, poor conditions capsized a boat carrying migrants. On Thursday morning, the Coastguard was looking for another 20 people, with three having been rescued the day before and four others having managed to swim to shore.
Although weakened, Storm Ian continued its destructive course towards South Carolina on Thursday.
afp/ther