The remnants of Hurricane Ian, one of the strongest and costliest storms to ever hit the United States, pushed north on Saturday, promising more dangerous flooding, power outages and misery throughout the southeast.
The storm, which was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone after hitting Florida and then South Carolina, killed at least 34 people in Florida, according to state officials and an NBC News tally.
The National Hurricane Center has warned of record flooding in parts of Florida and flash, urban and small-stream flooding in central Appalachia and parts of the southern mid-Atlantic regions. throughout the weekend.
Ian will have maximum sustained winds of 35 mph, according to the NHC. He also said the storm is expected to dissipate over south-central Virginia by tonight.
Rescue efforts continued.
“Since this operation began for us, just hours after the storm made landfall, we have been able to rescue 325 people and over 100 pets,” Rear Admiral Brendan McPherson told The Today Show Saturday morning.
McPherson commands the Coast Guard in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
He warned that power outages were complicating rescue efforts as people in affected communities struggled without access to their mobile phones or electricity.
“That’s one of the biggest challenges,” he said. “Immediately after this storm, we searched and found air crews looking for people in need of assistance.”
But he added that most of the areas that have been cut off in southwest Florida are now accessible either by air or by urban search and rescue teams going door-to-door by boat.
In Florida, nearly 1.3 million homes and businesses were left without power early Saturday, three days after Ian arrived in the state. In South Carolina, more than 62,000 customers had no power.
Ian threatened millions for most of the week, battering west Cuba before crossing Florida from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean.
The National Hurricane Center has warned of record flooding in parts of Florida and flash, urban and small-stream flooding in central Appalachia and parts of the southern mid-Atlantic regions. throughout the weekend.
Millions of people in Florida still had to deal with the impact of Ian. Stranded residents waded through knee-deep water on Friday in Fort Myers, one of the hardest hit areas in the state, salvaging what they could from their flooded homes and loading them onto rafts and canoes.
“I want to sit in the corner and cry. I don’t know what else to do,” The Associated Press quoted Stevie Scuderi as saying after walking through her largely destroyed Fort Myers apartment, mud in her kitchen sticking to her purple sandals.
Ian’s center landed in South Carolina on Friday near Georgetown, a small community along Winyah Bay about 60 miles north of historic Charleston. The storm washed away parts of four piers along the coast, including two connected to the popular tourist town of Myrtle Beach.
Weakened to a post-tropical cyclone, Ian is expected to cross central North Carolina on Saturday with maximum winds of 35 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center, and dissipate over south-central Virginia by this evening. President Joe Biden has approved an emergency declaration for the state, authorizing federal aid to all of its 100 counties as well as the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
Ian will have maximum sustained winds of 35 mph, according to the NHC. He also said the storm is expected to dissipate over south-central Virginia by tonight.
But even if Ian’s winds are expected to dissipate this evening, communities from coastal tourist towns to inland suburbs are likely to continue to experience the effects of flooding from heavy rains and overflowing rivers, with sustained repair work unable to cope. start in earnest before slowing down. of the wind speed.
The storm is expected to produce an additional 2 to 4 inches of rain on Saturday, with a maximum of 15 cm in parts of central Appalachia and North Carolina.
Associated press contributed.
