dpa
Miami
Florida officials estimate there may be more than 50 deaths across eight counties linked to Hurricane Ian.
At least 18 of the people who died drowned. Three died when their oxygen machines stopped working due to power outages.
The youngest fatality confirmed by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission was a 22-year-old woman in Manatee County. The oldest confirmed death was a 92-year-old man in Lee County. The official death toll has continued to rise as emergency responders from across the state descend into the hardest-hit areas.
Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno on Friday afternoon announced 16 storm-related deaths and five non-storm-related deaths. Marceno didn’t provide further details.
That’s the first preliminary fatality count out of the region that Governor Ron DeSantis described as “ground zero” and “where the storm packed its biggest punch.” DeSantis noted on Friday that some of the newer buildings in the worst-hit areas like Fort Myers Beach, Captiva and Sanibel Island stood up to the storm.
“But man, I’ll tell you, those older homes that just aren’t as strong built, they got washed into the sea, some of them,” DeSantis said at a press conference. “And so if you were hunkering down in that, that is something that I think would be difficult to be survivable.” In Sarasota County, where four deaths have been confirmed, Sheriff Kurt Hoffman described the storm as “significant and catastrophic.” “I’ve lived in this community for over four decades and I have never seen a storm of this strength that has done this much damage,” Hoffman said Friday.
Guthrie described a grim situation at a home in an undisclosed location in Lee County with apparent drowning victims.
“Let me paint the picture for you. The water was up over the rooftop but we had a Coast Guard rescue swimmer swim down into it and he could identify what appeared to be human remains.” Guthrie noted that there are “a couple of other situations” in the area with similar circumstances.
Much of the county remains without power or water. There were 3-metre-high (10-foot-high) storm surges when the hurricane made landfall, Marceno said.
“It’s definitely the worst thing I’ve seen in my life, and I’m a lifelong Floridian,” Lee County Commissioner Brian Hamman told the Miami Herald on Friday. “We don’t even have water getting to the hospitals.”
