Hurricane JanThe death toll continued a grim, steady climb Tuesday as officials in Florida laid out the next steps in the recovery effort and Joe Biden prepared to visit some of the hardest-hit areas.
According to unofficial data, more than 100 people died as a result of the category 4 storm that swept through Florida last week. the second deadly US landfall in South Carolina.
But officials say they expect the number to rise, and Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marcena, whose jurisdiction was ground zero because of Ian’s 150 mph winds and 12-foot storm surge, said Tuesday that he was concerned that rescuers discover bodies in destroyed houses for almost a whole year. a week after the storm passed.
“We’re worried about burnout,” he said at a morning news conference. “We work 12-hour days and they can’t go home to their families.”
The sheriff said he is grateful to the National Guard and federal personnel, as well as the volunteer first responders, who ease the burden on his department.
“We’ve had such a catastrophic blow, but everyone wants to help,” Marcheno said. “It’s very heartbreaking during these tragic events because so many people’s lives have been washed away in a matter of minutes and hours.”
More than 1,900 people had been rescued across the state by Monday evening, authorities said.
The president and first lady Jill Biden have a planned tour of the southwest of the country Florida on Wednesday to see first-hand the damage caused by one of several powerful storms to hit and devastate the continental U.S. in recent years.
Last week, Biden signed major disaster declarations for more than a dozen Florida counties, and he promised in address from the White House on Friday that his administration would be with the victims “every step of the way.”
“Recovery will take months, years,” he said. “Our hearts go out to all those people whose lives were completely devastated by this storm. America’s heart is literally breaking just watching this on television.”
As of Tuesday morning, about 430,000 homes and businesses were still without power across Florida, mostly in the southwest, where Ian first made landfall in the U.S. three days after passing through Cuba. Residents of some areas were warned that recovery could take several weeks.
Florida National Guard officials said that while efforts to find survivors continue and more than 5,000 troops have been deployed to the devastated areas, relief and recovery operations are also underway.
“We are setting up distribution points throughout the county to try to get food and water to the areas that are cut off by the flood,” Maj. Gen. James Eifert told CNN.
“[We’re] going out into the community to make sure they understand that people do care and we’re there to help them, whether it’s rebuilding or rescuing or even just providing security so they feel safe that their homes and belongings will not be destroyed or plundered.”
Marcheno outlined a three-phase recovery effort with advanced logistical planning being carried out alongside humanitarian missions.
It included temporary ferry service between the mainland and the islands of Sanibel and Captiva, which were cut off due to the collapse of the Sanibel levee during the storm.
“It’s all hands on deck, people. We know people want to come back, they want to see their homes, they want to see if they have a home,” he said.
“They want to take away a photo album, something that cannot be replaced with insurance or money. We want to make sure that we’re giving people the opportunity to do that when it’s safe.”
Some early estimates put the damage from Ian in Florida at around $50 billion, while some insurance industry analysts say the final figure could be much higher, putting the Costliest storms in US history.
The state’s chief financial officer, Jimmy Patronis, has warned residents about scams like cowboy contractors who go door-to-door and fake insurance adjusters who promise inflated payouts.
He said, “Predators will come. They’re going to come in like locusts and hit neighborhoods and people are vulnerable right now.”
He extended a warning to bogus charities and unofficial GoFundMe campaigns, saying: “They will take a hard-luck story, steal the images from Facebook, put them online and siphon off the dollars, making sure they don’t go to anyone who really needs it.”
Meanwhile, stories of heroism and dramatic rescues continued to emerge after the storm, including a son who swam half a mile of debris-filled water, to save his 84-year-old mothertwice amputated, from his flooded home in Naples.
