Power restoration is always a key challenge after major hurricanes, when high winds and flying debris can topple power lines or major parts of the electricity infrastructure. State officials said they expect power to be restored by Sunday to customers whose power lines and other electric infrastructure is still intact. Ian knocked out power to 2.6 million customers across Florida after it roared ashore with 150 mph (241 kph) winds and a powerful storm surge. “When there’s no power … we can’t make food, we don’t have gas.” Her mother has trouble breathing and needed to go to a friend’s house with electricity. She was still using a borrowed generator to try to keep her kids and their grandfather cool as temperatures in the typically humid area reached the upper 80s (about 30 degrees Celsius). She praised the crews for their hard work: “They’ve done a remarkable job.”Ī few miles north along the coast in Bonita Springs, Catalina Mejilla’s family wasn’t as lucky. Her electricity was restored four days after the hurricane slammed into her community of roughly 22,000 people. In Naples, Kelly Sedgwick was just seeing news footage Monday of the devastation.
In hardest-hit Lee County, Florida, all 45 people killed by the hurricane were over age 50.Īs floodwaters begin to recede, power restoration has become job one. And a woman died when a gust of wind knocked her off her porch while she was smoking a cigarette as the storm approached, authorities said. Another got trapped trying to climb through a window. A man drowned after becoming trapped under a vehicle. There have been deaths in vehicle wrecks, drownings and accidents. After churning northeastward into the Atlantic, the hurricane made another landfall in South Carolina before pushing into the mid-Atlantic states. 27, a day before it reached Florida’s Gulf Coast. Officials said that as of Monday, more than 2,350 people had been rescued throughout the state.Īt least 75 people were killed in Florida, five in North Carolina, three in Cuba and one in Virginia since Ian made landfall on the Caribbean island on Sept. The number of storm-related deaths has risen to at least 84 in recent days, both because of the dangers posed by cleaning up and as search and rescue crews comb through the hardest-hit areas.
(AP) - Hurricane Ian may be long gone from Florida, but workers on the ground were pushing ahead Tuesday to restore power and search for anyone still trapped inside flooded or damaged homes.
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