The Coast Guard continues with rescues in “unrecognizable” areas and Biden warns that the reconstruction “will take months, years”
“We are just beginning to see the scale of the destruction. The reconstruction will take months, years. This is how US President Joe Biden described this Saturday the state of calamity in which Florida has been left after the passage of Hurricane ‘Ian’, the most destructive and deadly in its entire history. The deceased already amount to 45, according to CNN, but the balance continues to rise as the Coast Guard continues with the rescues in the places most affected by the phenomenon, downgraded to a tropical cyclone on Friday night after making landfall in South Carolina.
The emergency teams continued touring the flooded areas on Saturday in boats to find out the fate of the residents who were trapped in their homes. “We are operating in areas that are unrecognizable. There are no traffic signs. The buildings that were once landmarks in the community are no longer there,” a member of the Coast Guard told local media, who estimated at 275 the interventions carried out in Florida since the arrival of ‘Ian’ on Wednesday with almost category 5 , the largest scale of destruction.
The city of Fort Myers, “epicenter” of the tragedy, according to Governor Ron DeSantis, offered an overwhelming picture, especially the part of the town that is on the seafront, on Estero Island. Helicopter footage showed dozens of boats stranded in the streets – some still moored to a stretch of berth – while cars swept away by the hurricane floated in a nearby bay. “We have to start over. It’s going to take a long time, so we have to get our strength back,” Rich Gibboni, one of the many residents who lost his home, told AFP.
tornado threat
The National Hurricane Center (CNH), for its part, reported flash flooding in parts of North and South Carolina and southeastern Virginia after “Ian” made landfall, very weak, on Friday night near Georgetown and left without electricity to some 575,000 homes and businesses. The meteor also threatened until Saturday morning with tornadoes in these areas, as well as in southeastern Virginia. Meanwhile, more than 1.5 million remained without power in Florida.
The CNH forecast is that ‘Ian’ will dissipate completely this morning, although the risk of “moderate” rains and floods will remain in the central Appalachians and the northeastern United States.
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