Ian Evacuees Return to Mud, Rubble as Death Toll Hits 101
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The number of deaths from Hurricane Ian rose to at least 101 on Thursday, eight days after the storm made landfall in southwest Florida. According to reports, 92 of those deaths were in Florida. Five people were also killed in North Carolina, three in Cuba and one in Virginia.
Rotting fish and garbage lie scattered in Sanibel Island’s streets. On the mainland, debris from washed-away homes is heaped in a canal like matchsticks. Huge shrimp boats sit perched amid the remains of a mobile home park, AP reported.
“Think of a snow globe. Pick it up and shake it — that’s what happened,” said Fred Szott.
For the past three days, he and his wife Joyce have been making trips to their damaged mobile home in Fort Myers, cleaning up after Hurricane Ian slammed into Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Ian is the second-deadliest storm to hit the mainland US in the 21st century behind Hurricane Katrina, which left more than 1,800 people dead in 2005. The deadliest hurricane ever to hit the US was the Great Galveston Hurricane in 1900 that killed as many as 8,000 people.
Ian, a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour (240 kilometers per hour), unleashed torrents of rain and caused extensive flooding and damage. The deluge turned streets into gushing rivers. Backyard waterways overflowed into neighborhoods, sometimes by more than a dozen feet (3.5 meters), tossing boats onto yards and roadways. Beaches disappeared, as ocean surges pushed shorelines far inland. Officials estimate the storm has caused billions of dollars in damage.
