Devastating flooding in Fort Myers due to Hurricane Ian
Hurricane Ian made landfall Wednesday afternoon near Fort Myers as a major hurricane just short of a Category 5 hurricane. the south the day before. Residents had little time to evacuate their homes before feet of water rushed in due to the storm surge.
FORT MYERS, Florida. – Hurricane Ian swamped southwest Florida, leaving behind damaged electrical infrastructure in two counties, turning streets into rivers and damaging two bridges, including the Sanibel Causeway.
Governor Ron DeSantis provided an update Thursday morning saying the power grid in Lee and Charlotte counties will likely need to be rebuilt, described Hurricane Ian’s devastation in the area as a “500-year flood.” .
Part of the Sanibel Causeway that collapsed. (WZVN-WBBH)
Another angle of the Sanibel Causeway collapse. (WZVN-WBBH)
He said the Sanibel Causeway and the Pine Island Bridge are both impassable. They have suffered structural damage and will need to be rebuilt.
Another angle showing the damage to the road leading to the Sanibel Causeway
Law enforcement reported receiving numerous calls from people trapped in flooded homes. Desperate people posted on Facebook and other social sites, pleading for their rescue or that of their loved ones. Some videos showed debris-covered water lapping towards the eaves of homes.
While the exact figure for injuries and fatalities is unconfirmed, the Lee County Sheriff said the death toll could be in the “hundreds”.
In a phone interview with Good Morning America, Sheriff Carmine Marceno said thousands still needed to be rescued. Lee County includes Fort Myers, Sanibel Island and Captiva Island.
“I don’t have any confirmed numbers, but I know there are hundreds of deaths,” he said in the interview. “There are thousands of people waiting to be rescued.”
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On Thursday, the Sanibel Lighthouse still appears to be standing.
Side-by-side images showing a photo of the Sanibel Lighthouse from 2016 (left) and a distant photo of it the morning after Hurricane Ian made landfall (right)
It is located at the east end of the island. It was built in 1884 and donated to the City of Sanibel in 2004 for restoration.
The major hurricane pushed up a wall of accumulated storm surge as it slowly moved across the Gulf, flooding the roads of Fort Myers before it even made landfall in Coya Costa.
FORT MYERS FLORIDA – SEPTEMBER 29: Stedi Scuderi looks over his apartment after floodwaters inundated it as Hurricane Ian passed through the area on September 29, 2022 in Fort Myers, Florida. The hurricane brought high winds, storm surges and rain t
In Naples, the first floor of a fire station was flooded with about 3 feet of water and firefighters worked to recover equipment from a fire truck stuck outside the garage in even more water. deep, showed a video posted by the Naples fire department.
Naples is in Collier County, where the Sheriff’s Department posted on Facebook that it was receiving “a significant number of calls from people trapped in water in their homes ‘and will put people first’ reporting life-threatening medical emergencies in deep water”. “
In Port Charlotte, along Florida’s Gulf Coast, storm surge flooded a lower-level emergency room at a hospital even as high winds ripped off part of the roof of its intensive care unit , according to a doctor who works there.
Water gushed over the ICU, forcing staff to evacuate the hospital’s sickest patients — some of whom were on ventilators — to other floors, said Dr. Birgit Bodine of HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital. . Staff members used towels and plastic bins to try and mop up the soggy mess.
“As long as our patients are doing well and no one ends up dying or having a bad outcome, that’s what matters,” Bodine said.
Boats floated through the flooded streets and were washed ashore.
The medium-sized hospital spans four floors, but patients have only been forced to two due to the damage. Bodine planned to spend the night there in case people injured by the storm arrived and needed help.
For WINK-TV, the storm surge wall that Ian brought went into the newsroom located in Fort Myers. According to one of their meteorologists, Matt Devitt, they lost power and couldn’t continue broadcasting. At 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, he said the worst wave was behind them and water levels were slowly falling.
“This was, without a doubt, the strongest hurricane in Southwest Florida history,” he wrote on Facebook. “Stay tough, we’re almost done. Thinking of you all. We’re going to rebuild the community we know and love.”
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Video: Hurricane Ian pushes water out of Hillsborough Bay
Along Bayshore Boulevard, winds from Hurricane Ian drained water from Hillsborough Bay. A strange sight that also happened in 2017 during Hurricane Irma. The video shows a weather camera timelapse and ground video of FOX 13 crews.
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Brittany Hailer, a reporter in Pittsburgh, contacted rescuers about her mother in North Fort Myers, whose home was flooded in 1.5 meters of water.
“We don’t know when the water is going to go down. We don’t know how they’re going to leave, their cars are exhausted,” Hailer said. “His only way out is on a boat.”
FORT MYERS FLORIDA – SEPTEMBER 29: Brenda Brennan sits next to a boat that pushed against her apartment as Hurricane Ian rolled through the area on September 29, 2022 in Fort Myers, Florida. Ms Brennan said the boat arrived around 7 p.m. the hur
President Joe Biden has since approved a disaster declaration for Sunshine State on Thursday morning after Ian’s trek across the state.
