People are trapped and without 2.5M power as Ian drenches Florida

st.petersburg, florida – Hurricane Ian Leaving a trail of destruction in southwest Florida, trapping people in flooded homes, blocking and damaging the only bridge to a barrier island hospital roof Rain across the peninsula on Thursday cut power to intensive care units and 2.5 million people.

One of the strongest hurricanes to hit the United States in history threatened to cause devastating flooding across the state. Strong winds from Ian’s Tropical Storm extended outwards up to 415 miles (665 km), drenching much of Florida and the southeastern Atlantic coast.

Emergency workers sawed through fallen trees to reach people in flooded homes, but there was virtually no electricity or cell phone service, leaving many people from the worst-hit coastal areas hit by the waves. was unable to ask for help.

“Portable towers are moving towards cellular service. Your loved ones may not have the ability to contact you,” said the Collier County sheriff’s office, which includes Naples. “When the sun goes down, I can tell you it’s going to be a tough day because the aftermath will be revealed.”

In Lee County, including Fort Myers, just south of where Hurricane Ian made landfall, the sheriff’s office posted phone number Family and friends could ask for welfare checks and said, “If the phone is busy, try it.”

The National Hurricane Center is expected to regain near-hurricane strength after Ian turned into a tropical storm on land early Thursday and appeared over the Atlantic near the Kennedy Space Center later in the day, with South Carolina reaching 2 We are looking at landing in the United States for the second time.

A stretch of the Gulf Coast that had been pushed ashore by a massive storm remained submerged in seawater. Severe and life-threatening storm surge inundation 8 to 10 feet above ground with destructive waves is ongoing along the coastline from Inglewood in southwestern Florida to Bonita Beach, including the Port of Charlotte.

Part of the Sanibel Causeway fell into the sea, cutting off access to a barrier island that normally houses 6,300 people. In the immediate aftermath of the storm, it was impossible to know how many people heeded the mandatory evacuation order.

In Port Charlotte, storm surges flooded a hospital’s emergency room, even though high winds ripped off part of the roof of an intensive care unit, said a doctor who works there.

According to Dr. Birgit Bodine of HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital, water was pouring into the ICU and the most ill patients, some on ventilators, had to be evacuated to another floor. Staff used towels and plastic containers to try and wipe up the soaked dirt.

The medium-sized hospital has four floors, but due to the damage, it was expected that patients would be two-crowded and those injured in the storm would need help.

“As long as our patients are doing well and no one dies or has a bad outcome, that’s what matters,” Bodine said.

Law enforcement officers in nearby Fort Myers received calls from people trapped in flooded homes and concerned relatives. Some posted videos showing water splashing towards the eaves of houses.

Pittsburgh journalist Brittany Haler contacted rescuers about a mother whose home in North Fort Myers was submerged in 1.5 meters (5 feet) of water.

“You never know when the water will recede.

Hurricane Ian turned streets into rivers, blew trees away, and slammed into southwestern Florida on Wednesday with winds of 150 miles per hour (241 kilometers per hour), pushing a storm surge wall. Ian’s strength at the time of landfall was a Category 4, rivaling her fifth strongest hurricane to ever hit the United States as measured by wind speed.

Ian’s center landed more than 100 miles (160 km) south of Tampa and St. Petersburg, saving the densely populated Tampa Bay area from damage. First direct hit by the greatest hurricanes since 1921.

Ian hit a tropical storm on land early Thursday, but it will intensify again as its center shifts over the Atlantic Ocean, threatening the South Carolina coast with near-hurricane strength Friday before moving inland. It was expected.

At 5 a.m. Thursday, the storm was about 40 miles (70 km) southeast of Orlando and 35 miles (55 km) southwest of Cape Canaveral, carrying maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph) and 8 mph towards the Cape. (13 km/h), said the center.

Hurricane warnings have been downgraded to tropical storm warnings across the Florida peninsula, leaving widespread devastating flooding possible, according to the Hurricane Center. I was.

“It doesn’t matter how strong the storm is. We can still expect a fair amount of rain,” Robbie Berg, senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center, said in an interview with the AP.

Up to 30 centimeters of precipitation is expected in northeastern Florida, coastal Georgia, and parts of the South Carolina Lowcountry. Up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain could drop in southern Virginia as the storm moves inland across Carolina.

By late Wednesday, no U.S. deaths by Ian had been reported. But a boat carrying Cuban migrants sank in a storm east of Key West on Wednesday.

The US Coast Guard launched a 23-person search and rescue mission and was able to locate three survivors about 2 miles (3 km) south of the Florida Keys, officials said. Four of her other Cubans swam to Stock Island, just east of Key West, according to U.S. Border Patrol. The aircrew continued his search for perhaps 20 migrants remaining.

The storm has hit Cuba before, killing two people and taking down the country’s power grid.

The eye of the hurricane made landfall near Cayo Costa, a barrier island just west of densely populated Fort Myers. As we approach Water drained from Tampa Bay.

More than 2.5 million homes and businesses in Florida experienced power outages, according to the PowerOutage.us site. Most homes and businesses in 12 counties lost power.

Sheriff Bull Plummer of Charlotte County, just north of Fort Myers, has announced a 9:00 p.m. I said it is possible.

“We are enacting this curfew as a means of protecting the people and property of Charlotte County,” Plummell said.

Life-threatening storm surges and hurricane conditions could occur Thursday and Friday along the northeastern coasts of northeastern Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, prompting Ian to move inland and bring more rain from the coast. was expected to rain

Governors of South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia have all preemptively declared states of emergency.

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Associated Press contributors include Christina Mesquita in Havana, Cuba. Cody Jackson and Adriana Gomez Ricon in Tampa, Florida. Frida Frisaro in Miami. Anthony Izaguirre of Tallahassee, Florida. Mike Schneider of Orlando, Florida. Seth Borenstein and Amar Madani in Washington. Bobby Kyna Calvin in New York. Andrew Welsh Huggins of Columbus, Ohio. Jay Reeves of Birmingham, Alabama and Alina Hartownian of Phoenix, Arizona.