United States President Joe Biden warned that Hurricane Ian could be the deadliest storm to hit the state’s history. The damage left speaks for itself with boats piled up in the streets in Fort Myers and with no word yet on how many people may have died.
With Hurricane Ian now heading towards North and South Carolina, a massive search and rescue operation is now underway after the category four storm hit last Wednesday, BBC reported.
As of this writing, more than 700 people have reportedly been rescued in Charlotte and Lee counties. The two areas were the worst hit by Hurricane Ian according to Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
He also warned that both counties had been left basically "off the grid" following power outages, which hours later were still affecting some 2.2 million homes and businesses across the state.
Similar to the count of the people who may have died, it remains unclear how many more are still awaiting aid. Two barrier islands were "hit with really biblical storm surges" but remained cut off from the mainland according to DeSantis.
"We had a bunch of calls coming in when the storm was approaching, but we had to shut down 911 operations because we couldn't put our first responders on the roads during a hurricane event," Joseph Tiseo, a Charlotte County commissioner quipped.
As for the survivors, some narrated the flooding left them trapped in their homes.
One of them, Janel Thil from Fort Myers, was forced to swim to safety when her ground-floor apartment started to flood.
"[My neighbors] got my dogs and then I jumped out of the window and swam," the 42-year-old said.
While some waited for help, some knew that they were placed in a compromising situation.
"You have to either swim or drown," one unnamed woman said to an outlet.
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