![]() ![]() Lee County’s emergency planning documents had set out a time-is-of-the-essence strategy, noting that the region’s large population and limited road system make it difficult to evacuate the county swiftly. ![]() Parts of Fort Myers Beach, even in that case, had a 40 percent chance of a six-foot-high storm surge, according to the surge forecasts. Jason Andrew for The New York TimesĪt that point, the National Hurricane Center produced modeling showing a chance of a storm surge covering much of Cape Coral and Fort Myers. “And so what I saw in southwest Florida is, as the data changed, they sprung into action.”īut while the track of Hurricane Ian did shift closer to Lee County in the days before it made landfall, the surge risks the county faced - even with the more northerly track - were becoming apparent as early as Sunday night.ĭiana Kauth, 65, was helped off a rescue rig by the Florida Forest Service after she rode out Hurricane Ian in her neighbor’s two-story home on San Carlos Island. DeSantis said at a news conference on Friday in Lee County. “There is a difference between a storm that’s going to hit north Florida that will have peripheral effects on your region, versus one that’s making a direct impact,” Mr. Ron DeSantis and his state emergency management director also said the earlier forecasts had predicted the brunt of the storm’s fury would strike farther north. “I think we responded as quickly as we humanly could have,” he said. Kevin Ruane, a Lee County commissioner and a former mayor of Sanibel, said the county had postponed ordering an extensive evacuation because the earlier hurricane modeling had shown the storm heading farther north. Ferguson said she and her family fled to the second floor, lugging a generator and dry food, as the water rose through their living room. “I felt there wasn’t enough time,” she said. By the time she arrived home, it was too late to find anywhere to go, so she hunkered down with her husband and three children to wait as a wall of water began surging through areas of Fort Myers, including some that were well away from the coastline. Dana Ferguson, 33, a medical assistant in Fort Myers, said she had been at work when the first text message appeared on her phone Tuesday morning. Lee County, which includes the hard-hit seaside community of Fort Myers Beach, as well as the towns of Fort Myers, Sanibel and Cape Coral, did not issue a mandatory evacuation order for the areas likely to be hardest hit until Tuesday morning, a day after several neighboring counties had ordered their most vulnerable residents to flee.īy then, some residents recalled that they had little time to evacuate. Protests broke out across Cuba, as desperate citizens demanded that the government restore electricity and provide aid to areas ravaged by Ian this week.Ībout 1.4 million customers are still without power in Florida, and about 566,000 had lost electricity in the Carolinas and Virginia by Friday night.ĭestruction on San Carlos Island after Hurricane Ian tore through the area. “Some of the homes were wiped out.” At least 16 people were killed by the storm in Lee County, where Fort Myers Beach is, according to the county sheriff. ![]() But the National Hurricane Center said it still had the potential to produce dangerous wind and flooding.įort Myers Beach, in southwest Florida, was hit especially hard on Wednesday, Gov. Ian was downgraded, and no longer considered a tropical storm, about four hours after making landfall over Georgetown, S.C., between Charleston and Myrtle Beach. In Florida, officials said that at least three dozen deaths were possibly linked to the storm - a toll they expected to rise. The storm came ashore as a Category 1 hurricane, with lashing winds and rain but less dire initial damage reports. Almost 48 hours after its devastating impact on Florida’s southwest coast, Ian struck a much weaker blow to South Carolina on Friday. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |