Saturday 1 October 2022 03:36 PM Hurricane Ian death toll rises to 30, including elderly couple who lost power ... trends now
The confirmed death toll of Hurricane Ian has risen to 30, with the majority in a Florida county that is facing criticism for delaying its evacuation warning.
The fatalities included 27 people dead in Florida, mostly from drowning but others from the storm's tragic aftereffects. An elderly couple died after their oxygen machines shut off when they lost power, authorities said.
The dead included a 68-year-old woman swept into the ocean by a wave and a 67-year-old man who who fell into rising water inside his home while awaiting rescue.
Authorities also said a 22-year-old woman died after an ATV rollover from a road washout and a 71-year-old man suffered a fatal fall from a rooftop while putting up rain shutters. Another three people died in Cuba earlier in the week.
In Lee County, home to Fort Myers and epicenter of the hurricane's devastation on Florida's Gulf Coast, there were 16 deaths after county officials waited a day longer than other nearby areas to issue evacuation orders.
Lee County did not issue a mandatory evacuation until Tuesday morning, just over 24 hours before the storm made landfall, with officials there telling the New York Times that they postponed the order due to earlier forecasts that showed the storm heading further north.
Still, there were scenes of hope in the midst of devastation in Florida, as more than 1,000 people joined search-and-rescue operations across the state. Video from Fort Myers Beach showed a man being pulled alive from the splintered fragments of a destroyed home.
Early on Saturday, rescuers continued to search for survivors among the ruins of Florida's flooded homes, while authorities in South Carolina assessed the damage from its second strike there.
NORTH PORT, FLORIDA: People trapped in hurricane-hit areas in North Port waiting for rescue teams on Friday. The storm has caused widespread power outages and flash flooding in Central Florida as it crossed through the state
FORT MYERS, FLORIDA: Jordan Reidy carries his dog, Ivory, back to their second-floor apartment on Friday in Fort Myers, Florida. Reidy and his mother plan to stay at the home because they feel like they have no where else to go
NORTH PORT: People waiting for rescue teams in North Port, Florida feed an infant on Friday after Ian passed through
On Saturday the remnants of Ian were pushing north toward Virginia and are expected to bring widespread rain, with isolated risks of flash flooding in parts of the Appalachians and the Mid-Atlantic coast
Meanwhile, the remnants of one of the strongest and costliest hurricanes to ever hit the US continued to push north toward Virginia, bringing heavy rains and leaving thousands without power in the Carolinas.
The storm struck Florida's Gulf Coast on Wednesday as a monster Category 4, turning beach towns into disaster areas.
On Friday, it pummeled waterfront Georgetown, north of the historic city of Charleston in South Carolina, with wind speeds of 85 mph.
The powerful storm terrorized millions of people for most of the week, battering western Cuba before raking across Florida from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean, where it mustered enough strength for its final assault on South Carolina.
Now weakened to a post-tropical cyclone, Ian was expected to move across central North Carolina on Saturday morning and reach south-central Virginia by the afternoon.
'Widespread showers and some thunderstorms are forecast to continue through the weekend from the central Appalachians into the Mid-Atlantic and southern New England,' the National Weather Service said in a flash bulletin.
Rain totals are generally forecast in the range of one to two inches, though there was a risk of flash flooding in parts of West Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic coastline.
MYRTLE BEACH: Images from South Carolina show the flooding there on Friday as Ian made its second strike on the US
MYRTLE BEACH: A shrimping vessel is damaged by Hurricane Ian in South Carolina on Friday
NORTH CHARLESTON: Waters from a rain-swollen pond cover grass and a foot path around Quarterman Park in North Charleston, South Carolina, after Hurricane Ian brought sheets of rain to the area
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