Hurricane Ian: Florida deaths rise to 47 amid struggle to recover
The death toll in Florida has risen to 47, with another seven killed elsewhere as rescue efforts continue in the wake of Hurricane Ian.
Hundreds of thousands of people were still without power days after the storm rampaged from the state's southwestern coast up to the Carolinas.
Florida, with nearly four dozen reported dead, was hit hardest by the Category 4 hurricane, one of the strongest to make landfall in the United States.
Flooded roadways and bridges to barrier islands left many people isolated, amid limited mobile phone service and a lack of water, electricity and the internet.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said on Saturday that billionaire businessman Elon Musk was providing some 120 Starlink satellites to “help bridge some of the communication issues.”
Starlink, a satellite-based internet system created by Musk's SpaceX, will provide high-speed connectivity.
Florida utilities were working to restore power. As of Saturday night, nearly 1 million homes and businesses were still without electricity, down from a peak of 2.67 million.
At least 54 people were confirmed dead, with 47 in Florida, four in North Carolina and three in Cuba.
The weakened storm was expected to dump rain on Sunday on Virginia and West Virginia as it dissipates, according to the National Weather Service.
More than 1,000 people were rescued from flooded areas along Florida's southwestern coast alone, Daniel Hokanson, a four-star general and head of the National Guard, said.
In Washington, the White House announced that President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden would travel to Florida on Wednesday – but a brief statement did not release any details of the planned visit.
The bridge to Pine Island, the largest barrier island off Florida’s Gulf Coast, was destroyed by the storm, leaving it accessible only by boat or air.
The volunteer group Medic Corps, which responds to natural disasters worldwide with pilots, paramedics and doctors, went door-to-door asking residents if they wanted to be evacuated.
Some flew out by helicopter, and people described the horror of being trapped in their homes as water kept rising.
“The water just kept pounding the house and we watched, boats, houses – we watched everything just go flying by,” Joe Conforti said, fighting back tears.
He said if it wasn’t for his wife, who suggested they get up on a table to avoid the rising water, he wouldn’t have made it.
He added: “I started to lose sensibility, because when the water’s at your door and it’s splashing on the door and you’re seeing how fast it’s moving, there’s no way you’re going to survive that.”
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Elsewhere, South Carolina's Pawleys Island, a beach community roughly 75 miles (115 kilometres) up the coast from Charleston, was also hit hard.
Power remained knocked out to at least half the island on Saturday.
In North Carolina, the storm downed trees and power lines.
Two of the four deaths in the state were from storm-related vehicle crashes, and the others involved a man who drowned when his truck plunged into a swamp and another killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from a generator in a garage.