Photos: Hurricane Ian Regains Steam After Florida's "Historic Devastation"

Hurricane Ian: Joe Biden declared a “major disaster” in Florida.

Fort Myers:

Hurricane Ian wreaked “historic” devastation in Florida, with an as-yet-unknown number of deaths in its wake, officials said Thursday, as the storm regrouped in the Atlantic on a path to the Carolinas.

The storm, one of the strongest to ever hit the United States, left hundreds of people to be rescued, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said, warning it was too early to get a clear picture. of the number of deaths.

Cars Stand in Floodwater Near Downtown Orlando After Hurricane Ian Smashed Through

“We absolutely expect death from this hurricane,” he said at a news conference Thursday evening.

President Joe Biden said after a briefing at FEMA’s emergency management headquarters in Washington that “this could be the deadliest hurricane in Florida history.”

The numbers “are still unclear, but we are hearing reports of what could be a significant loss of life,” he added.

The Sanibel Causeway Bridge has collapsed in some places in Florida

DeSantis said concrete information on the number of victims can be expected “in the coming days.”

Fort Myers, where Ian made landfall Wednesday as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, took the brunt of the storm as streets turned into rivers and seawater poured into homes.

Damaged buildings are seen as Hurricane Ian passed through Fort Myers

Dozens of boats moored in the marina were sunk, while others were hurled onto the downtown streets.

Trees were knocked down by howling winds up to 150 miles per hour.

Earlier on Thursday, DeSantis described the devastation in the southwestern part of the state as a “500-year flood.”

“We’ve never seen a storm surge of this magnitude,” he said.

‘Terrible’

Tom Johnson, 54, of Fort Myers was front row to the destruction from his apartment on the second floor of a two-story dockside building.

“I was scared because I’ve never experienced that,” Johnson told AFP. “It was just the most horrific sounds with debris flying around, doors flying all over the place.”

People Canoeing and Paddleboarding on a Flooded Street in Orlando

His house was undamaged, but one of his neighbors, Janelle Thil, 42, was not so lucky and had to turn to other residents for help after her ground-floor apartment started to flood.

“They grabbed my dogs and then I jumped out the window and swam,” Thil said.

When Thil returned to her apartment after the storm passed, she said she opened the door and had to “wait about five minutes for all the water to come out.”

“I loved my house,” she said. “But I’m alive and that’s the most important thing.”

boats pile up after Hurricane Ian passes through Fort Myers

According to DeSantis, the area also experienced a water main burst, which officials “worked to fix problems.”

A US Coast Guard official said helicopter crews were picking people off the roofs of houses that were under water.

Nine migrants have been rescued from a boat that sank on Wednesday during the hurricane, leaving 18 missing, the Coast Guard said. Among them were four Cubans who swam to shore in the Florida Keys.

Ian regains his strength

Ian was downgraded to a tropical storm overnight, but the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said it regained Category 1 hurricane strength Thursday afternoon and issued a hurricane warning for the entire coast of South Carolina and part of North Carolina.

Biden declared a “major disaster” in Florida, a move that frees up federal funding for storm relief.

A man with bottled water wades through water in a flooded neighborhood in the wake of Hurricane Ian in Fort Myers

“We continue to take swift action to help Florida families,” he tweeted. “I want the people of Florida to know that we will be here every step of the way.”

Much of Florida’s southwest coast was plunged into darkness after the storm swept away the current.

Tracking website poweroutage.us said 2.3 million homes and businesses were without electricity in the so-called Sunshine State as of late Thursday.

People paddle past in a canoe next to a sunken Chevy Corvette

Two barrier islands near Fort Myers, Pine Island and Sanibel Island, popular with vacationers, were essentially cut off when the storm damaged roads to the mainland.

Sanibel Island was “struck by a truly biblical storm surge,” DeSantis said, and rescuers used boats and helicopters to evacuate residents riding out of the storm.

Mandatory evacuation orders had been issued in many areas of Florida for Ian, with several dozen shelters set up.

Airports stopped all commercial flights and cruise ship companies delayed or canceled trips.