Hurricane Ian gets stronger in Florida, death toll increases

• Officials are worried that the verified death toll, which is at least 10, could increase significantly.
• The category one storm, according to Joe Biden, might be the deadliest hurricane in Florida history and cause a “significant loss of life.
• About 2.2 million households and businesses in Florida are still suffering from a blackout.

 In the wake of Hurricane Ian, which wreaked havoc across the US state of Florida, a sizable search and rescue operation is still underway.

Officials are worried that the verified death toll, which is at least 10, could increase significantly.

The category one storm, according to Joe Biden, might be the deadliest hurricane in Florida history and cause a “significant loss of life.”

Now that Ian is traveling inland, he will soon reach North and South Carolina.

About 2.2 million households and businesses in Florida are still suffering from a blackout.

According to officials, some residents of Orlando have been trapped in their homes by the flood waters, and the National Guard is going door to door to rescue them.

The southwest Charlotte County, which experienced strong winds, is where all 10 fatalities that have been confirmed occurred.

Local commissioner Joseph Tiseo told the BBC that the region had “a big wind event that lasted for 12 hours straight… it was awful.”

He remarked that it was unclear how many of the fatalities were directly related to the hurricane.

Devastation in Fort Myers: “Worst storm surge I’ve seen”

Florida residents observe Hurricane Ian’s effects in photographs.

Lee County, located a little further south, was hardest hit by the storm surge.

At a news conference on Thursday evening, the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, described the destruction as “nearly incomprehensible” in Fort Myers, a community with a harbor.

It “must have really been picked up, flown because of the huge wind speed and the storm surge, and dumped in a body of water” to witness a house sitting in the middle of Estero Bay, he said.

“I’d say the most substantial damage I witnessed was on Ford Myers Beach, where some of the homes were completely destroyed and others were reduced to nothing more than concrete slabs.”

One woman who experienced home loss described the event as “numbing” and “overwhelming.”

Despite not being my first hurricane, Karen, who resides on San Carlos Island in Fort Myers, told Reuters that she had suffered her first total loss.

Some locals were forced to swim outside of their houses.

When the floodwaters in her ground-floor apartment in Fort Myers rose, the woman said she had to wait “approximately five minutes for all the floodwaters to come out.”

Residents of the Sun Seekers mobile home park in North Fort Myers described their dread there as they hid under blankets.

One of the occupants, Kim, claimed, “Because you’re powerless, it was terrible.” Despite the fact that we lacked phone service, nobody would have shown up anyhow.

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