Hurricane Ian, a Category 4 storm that is perilously close to a Category 5 rating, slammed into the West Coast of Florida, sending a storm surge that flooded areas along the coast and cutting power to one million residents.
Fort Myers was one of the first cities to be battered by Ian, with apocalyptic images from after the initial surge showing homes decimated by its wrath as roads turned into rivers with the tsunami of floodwater.Meanwhile Naples and Sanibel Island were also rocked by the ‘historic’ hurricane, with houses overwhelmed by water, debris flung through windows and some even ripped from their hinges.Locals are reporting that hundreds of people in Naples are stranded on their rooftops, with the population of the town being made up mostly of elderly residents.And in Martin County, the sheriff’s office confirmed that this morning the body of 34-year-old construction worker Cody Dudek was found face down near Palm City.Across the state 1,103,460 households saw blackouts and Ron DeSantis said during a lunchtime update he expected the number to reach the millions as well as $45billion-worth of damage.
Video shared on social media show the magnitude of the surge.
Elsewhere in Florida, some residents took advantage of the conditions for some fun and games.
And there are sharks in the street!
Interestingly, in the face of such a disaster, the left still obsesses about….President Donald Trump.
There are reports of residents being trapped and the 911 system being down in some areas.
“We are in call triage mode. We are getting a significant number of calls of people trapped by water in their homes,” the Collier County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post Wednesday.”Some are reporting life threatening medical emergencies in deep water. We will get to them first. Some are reporting water coming into their house but not life threatening. They will have to wait. Possibly until the water recedes.”The 911 system in Lee County, Fla., is down and rerouting to the system in Collier County.
There may be some good news. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis indicates the deadly storm surge may have peaked.
Speaking at a press conference, DeSantis said the storm surge has likely peaked but has done a lot of damage and is going to continue moving through Florida….He predicted that Hurricane Ian would “rank as one of the top five hurricanes to ever hit the Florida peninsula.”DeSantis said he had sent a letter to the Biden administration for a major disaster declaration for all of Florida’s 67 counties requesting the federal government do a 100% reimbursement up front for 60 days to help the state move forward with its response and recovery phase.On recovery efforts, DeSantis said Florida has nearly 250 aircraft, more than six hundred high water vehicles and more than 300 boats of all drafts and sizes, including 250 already stationed in the major impacted areas and nearly 50 that are staged and ready at a moment’s notice.
For perspective, here is video of Ian taken from the International Space Station.
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