Florida, Carolinas rely the price of one of many worst U.S. hurricanes By Reuters

By Brad Brooks and Jonathan Drake

FORT MYERS, Fla./CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) – Florida, North and South Carolina have been on Saturday making an attempt to get well from the destruction wrought by Hurricane Ian, some of the highly effective storms to hit the U.S. mainland that left tens of billions in value and an unknown dying toll in its wake.

Ian, now a post-tropical cyclone, was weakening however nonetheless forecast to convey treacherous circumstances to components of the Carolinas, Virginia and West Virginia into Saturday morning, based on the Nationwide Hurricane Heart.

“The damaging storm surge, flash flooding and excessive wind risk continues,” it mentioned.

The storm struck Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday, turning seashore cities into catastrophe areas, earlier than hitting wind speeds of 85 mph (140 kph) because it pummeled waterfront Georgetown, north of the historic metropolis of Charleston in South Carolina on Friday.

Roads have been flooded and blocked by timber whereas a lot of piers have been broken.

Round 1.9 million houses and companies have been with out energy within the Carolinas and Florida at 21:30 ET (01:30 GMT), based on monitoring web site PowerOutage.us.

Each the variety of casualties and restore prices stay unclear, however as Florida entered its third day after Ian first hit, the extent of the harm was changing into obvious.

There have been stories of not less than 21 deaths, Kevin Guthrie, director of the state’s Division of Emergency Administration, mentioned at a morning briefing on Friday, stressing that a few of these remained unconfirmed.

Some 10,000 individuals have been unaccounted for, he mentioned, however a lot of them have been doubtless in shelters or with out energy.

“These older houses that simply aren’t as robust constructed, they received washed into the ocean,” mentioned Governor Ron DeSantis.

“If you’re hunkering down in that, that’s one thing that I believe can be very tough to be survivable.”

In the meantime, insurers are bracing for successful of between $28 billion and $47 billion, in what could possibly be the most costly Florida storm since Hurricane Andrew in 1992, based on U.S. property knowledge and analytics firm CoreLogic.

U.S. President Joe Biden has already accredited a catastrophe declaration, making federal assets accessible to counties impacted by the storm.

“We’re simply starting to see the dimensions of that destruction. It is more likely to rank among the many worst … within the nation’s historical past,” he mentioned.

“DEVASTATING”

Fort Myers, a metropolis near the place the attention of the storm first got here ashore, absorbed a significant blow, with quite a few homes destroyed.

Offshore, Sanibel Island, a well-liked vacation spot for vacationers and retirees, was minimize off when a causeway was rendered impassable.

Lots of of beleaguered Fort Myers residents lined up at a House Depot (NYSE:) on Friday on the east aspect of town, hoping to buy gasoline cans, mills, bottled water and different provides. The road stretched so long as a soccer area.

Rita Chambers, a 70-year-old retiree who was born in Jamaica and has lived in Fort Myers since 1998, mentioned Ian was not like any storm she had ever seen.

“And I have been in hurricanes since I used to be a baby!” mentioned Chambers, who moved to New York as a teen.

At a cellular residence park on San Carlos Island in Fort Myers Seashore, trailers had been pushed collectively by the wind and water. A ship, the “Dreamin,'” lay on its aspect at a neighborhood marina, the place one other boat had come to relaxation in a tree.

Deborah Grool, 70, misplaced her residence and automobiles to the storm.

“That is devastating, as a result of it is not simply houses, it is companies,” mentioned Grool, an actual property agent who has lived on the island for 45 years.

In the meantime tons of of miles north in Georgetown, residents have been additionally making an attempt to place their lives again collectively.

With a inhabitants of about 10,000, the city is a vacationer vacation spot recognized for its oak-lined streets and greater than 50 websites on the Nationwide Registry of Historic Locations. It was closely broken by 1989’s Hurricane Hugo.

A city-commissioned report launched in November 2020 discovered that about 90% of all residential properties have been weak to storm surge flooding.

Len Cappe, 68, a retired property supervisor who moved to Charleston two years in the past, mentioned Ian was the primary huge storm he has encountered.

“It is the wind, it rattles you,” Cappe mentioned. “It is blowing furiously.”

Learn extra:

Maps-Hurricane Ian batters the Gulf Coast

Drone video exhibits boats washed ashore in Hurricane Ian’s wake

A Florida city rebuilt after one hurricane endures one other

Hurricane hunter says Ian’s eyewall flight was ‘worst I’ve ever been on’

How hurricanes trigger harmful, harmful storm surges