Nearly a week after Hurricane Ian slammed into Florida and left a trail of destruction reaching as far as the Carolinas, more than half a million people faced another day without power on Tuesday as rescuers continued to search for people trapped in affected homes. due to persistent flooding.
At least 79 people have been confirmed dead from the storm: 71 in Florida, five in North Carolina and three in Cuba after Ian made landfall on the Caribbean island on September 27 and in Florida a day later.
The number of storm-related deaths has risen in recent days due to the dangers facing cleanup crews and search and rescue crews in the hardest-hit areas of Florida. Authorities said they had rescued about 2,350 people statewide as of Monday.
Search and rescue teams were still on the move in Florida, where more than 1,600 people have been rescued.
But for many state residents, restoring power has come first.
In the town of Naples, Kelly Sedgwick did not see the images of the storm’s devastation until Monday, when the power was restored four days after the hurricane attacked her population in southwest Florida. In nearby Bonita Springs, Catalina Mejilla used a borrowed generator to try to keep her children and the children’s grandfather cool while they waited for power to come back on.
Ian knocked out power to 2.6 million customers across Florida when it made landfall with 150 mph winds and a massive storm surge.
Since then, teams have been working around the clock to restore the electrical infrastructure. State officials said they hoped service would be restored by Sunday to customers with lines and infrastructure still intact.
Some 440,000 homes and businesses in Florida were still without power Monday night.
Restoring service is always a challenge after major hurricanes, when high winds and flying debris can bring down wires that deliver power to homes, or in stronger storms, damage crucial parts of electrical infrastructure like transmission lines. or power generation equipment.
Meanwhile, rescue and relief efforts in Florida remained difficult. In DeSoto County, northeast of Fort Myers, the Peace River and its tributaries reached record levels and boats were the only way to bring supplies to many of the area’s 37,000 residents.
Ian took bridges and roads to various barrier islands. About 130 Florida Department of Transportation trucks have begun work to build a temporary bridge to Pine Island that should be completed by the end of the week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Monday.
A similar temporary structure was planned to be built for nearby Sanibel, the governor said, though it would take longer.
Meanwhile, the remnants of the hurricane, now a northeastern storm, had not finished with the United States.
The northeast and mid-Atlantic coasts received downpours with the potential for flooding. The wind was pushing even more water into an already flooded Chesapeake Bay.
Norfolk and Virginia Beach declared states of emergency, although a change in wind direction prevented potentially catastrophic damage Monday, said Cody Poche, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wakefield, Virginia.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden were scheduled to visit Florida on Wednesday. The president went to Puerto Rico on Monday and vowed to “rebuild everything” after Hurricane Fiona left the entire island without power two weeks ago.
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Associated Press reporters Bobby Caina Calvan at Fort Meyers; Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee; Frieda Frisaro and David Fischer in Miami; Ben Finley in Norfolk, Va.; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.