By CURT ANDERSON
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Hurricane Ian, one of the highly effective storms ever recorded within the U.S., swamped southwest Florida on Wednesday, turning streets into rivers, knocking out energy to 2 million individuals and threatening catastrophic harm additional inland.
A coastal sheriff’s workplace reported that it was getting many calls from individuals trapped in flooded properties. Determined individuals posted to Fb and different social websites, pleading for rescue for themselves or family members. Some video confirmed debris-covered water sloshing towards properties’ eaves.
The storm surge flooded a hospital’s decrease stage emergency room in Port Charlotte, whereas fierce winds tore a part of its fourth flooring roof from its intensive care unit, in line with a physician who works there.
Water gushed down from above onto the ICU, forcing workers to evacuate the hospital’s sickest sufferers — a few of whom have been on ventilators — to different flooring, mentioned Dr. Birgit Bodine of HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital. Workers members used towels and plastic bins to attempt to mop up the sodden mess.
The medium-sized hospital spans 4 flooring, however sufferers have been pressured into simply two due to the harm. Bodine deliberate to spend the evening on the hospital in case individuals injured from the storm arrive there needing assist.
“The ambulances could also be coming quickly and we don’t know the place to place them within the hospital at this level as a result of we’re doubled and tripled up,” she mentioned. “So long as our sufferers do OK and no person finally ends up dying or having a foul consequence, that’s what issues.”
The hurricane’s middle made landfall close to Cayo Costa, a barrier island simply west of closely populated Fort Myers. Because it approached, water drained from Tampa Bay.
Mark Pritchett stepped exterior his dwelling in Venice across the time the hurricane churned ashore from the Gulf of Mexico, about 35 miles (55 kilometers) to the south. He known as it “terrifying.”
“I actually couldn’t stand in opposition to the wind,” Pritchett wrote in a textual content message. “Rain taking pictures like needles. My road is a river. Limbs and timber down. And the worst is but to come back.”
A ship carrying Cuban migrants sank Wednesday within the stormy climate in waters east of Key West. The U.S. Coast Guard initiated a search and rescue mission for 23 individuals and managed to seek out three survivors about two miles (three kilometers) south of the island chain, officers mentioned. 4 different Cubans swan to Inventory Island, simply east of Key West, the U.S. Border Patrol mentioned. Air crews continued to seek for probably 20 remaining migrants.
The Class 4 storm slammed the coast with 150 mph (241 kph) winds and pushed a wall of storm surge accrued throughout its gradual march over the Gulf. Greater than 2 million Florida properties and companies have been with out electrical energy, in line with PowerOutage.us. Almost each dwelling and enterprise in three counties was with out energy.
The storm beforehand tore into Cuba, killing two individuals and bringing down the nation’s electrical grid.
About 2.5 million individuals have been ordered to evacuate southwest Florida earlier than Ian hit, however by regulation nobody could possibly be pressured to flee.
Information anchors at Fort Myers tv station WINK needed to abandon their traditional desk and proceed storm protection from one other location of their newsroom as a result of water was pushing into their constructing close to the Caloosahatchee River.
Although anticipated to weaken to a tropical storm because it marches inland at about 9 mph (14 kph), Ian’s hurricane power winds have been more likely to be felt nicely into central Florida. Within the hours since landfall, prime sustained winds had progressively dropped to 90 mph (150 kph), making it a Class 1 hurricane crossing the peninsula. Nonetheless, storm surges as excessive as 6 ft (2 meters) have been anticipated on the other facet of the state, in northeast Florida.
Sheriff Bull Prummell of Charlotte County, simply north of Fort Myers, introduced a curfew between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. “for life-saving functions,” saying violators could face second-degree misdemeanor expenses.
“I’m enacting this curfew as a method of defending the individuals and property of Charlotte County Prummell mentioned.
Jackson Boone left his dwelling close to the Gulf coast and hunkered down at his regulation workplace in Venice with workers and their pets. Boone at one level opened a door to howling wind and rain flying sideways.
“We’re seeing tree harm, horizontal rain, very excessive wind,” Boone mentioned by cellphone. “We’ve got a 50-plus-year-old oak tree that has toppled over.”
In Naples, the primary flooring of a fireplace station was inundated with about 3 ft (1 meter) of water and firefighters labored to salvage gear from a firetruck caught exterior the storage in even deeper water, a video posted by the Naples Fireplace Division confirmed. Naples is in Collier County, the place the sheriff’s division reported on Fb that it was getting “a big variety of calls of individuals trapped by water of their properties” and that it will prioritize reaching individuals “reporting life threatening medical emergencies in deep water.”
Ian’s power at landfall tied it for the fifth-strongest hurricane when measured by wind pace to strike the U.S. Among the many different storms was Hurricane Charley, which hit practically the identical spot on Florida’s coast in August 2004, killing 10 individuals and inflicting $14 billion in harm.
Ian made landfall greater than 100 miles (160 kilometers) south of Tampa and St. Petersburg, sparing the densely populated Tampa Bay space from its first direct hit by a significant hurricane since 1921.
Flash floods have been potential all throughout Florida. Hazards embrace the polluted leftovers of Florida’s phosphate fertilizer mining business, greater than 1 billion tons of barely radioactive waste contained in monumental ponds that might overflow in heavy rains.
The federal authorities despatched 300 ambulances with medical groups and was able to truck in 3.7 million meals and three.5 million liters of water as soon as the storm passes.
“We’ll be there that will help you clear up and rebuild, to assist Florida get shifting once more,” President Joe Biden mentioned Wednesday. “And we’ll be there each step of the way in which. That’s my absolute dedication to the individuals of the state of Florida.”
The governors of Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina all preemptively declared states of emergency. Forecasters predicted Ian will flip towards these states as a tropical storm, seemingly dumping extra flooding rains into the weekend, after crossing Florida.
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Related Press contributors embrace Christina Mesquita in Havana, Cuba; Cody Jackson and Adriana Gomez Licon in Tampa, Florida; Freida Frisaro in Miami; Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida; Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida; Seth Borenstein and Aamer Madhani in Washington; Bobby Caina Calvan in New York; Andrew Welsh-Huggins in Columbus, Ohio; Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama, and Alina Hartounian in Phoenix, Arizona.