October 4, 2022 Hurricane Ian’s aftermath in Florida

Mike Verdream decided to ride out Hurricane Ian in Matlacha — a tiny island between Pine Island and the southwest Florida mainland — and planned to go to his boss’ two-story home if things got too bad, his niece told CNN.

Stacy Verdream said she spoke with her uncle briefly on Wednesday, the day the Category 4 storm crashed ashore. Her cousin spoke with him later that day and he said the water was 4 feet deep before telling her he had to go.

“It was a very brief call because he said he was very scared and she’d never heard him like that because he wasn’t that type of person. He’s always put on a brave face,” Verdream said. “But she said, he sounded absolutely terrified.”

On Monday, the sheriff’s office informed her brother that Verdream had died — and on Tuesday a detective told Verdream that her uncle’s remains were found Friday in a canal.

Authorities used medical records to identify him, Verdream said, and an autopsy is scheduled for Wednesday. 

Verdream said her uncle was a very giving person.

Her uncle had moved in with her family after her father died when she was young, she said.

“He was always there for me growing up, teaching me how to drive and taking me to the fair,” she said. “The cool uncle that would buy me like a dirt bike and bought the jet ski for us to, like, go out on the lake.”

He also was an amazing cook and could whip up a delicacy of a meal even when it seemed like the kitchen was empty.

“He’s just funny and goofy and very smart,” she added.

Residents who plan to return to view their homes on Sanibel Island on Wednesday will be in for quite a shock after Hurricane Ian leveled much of the southwest Florida barrier island.

Dana Souza, the city manager, said it’s going to be an emotional day for many residents, who will be permitted to visit the barrier island tomorrow. Sanibel’s infrastructure is devastated, he said, adding that most of the poles and transmission lines are still down.

“It is going to be emotional when they see their properties up close and the amount of damage that this storm inflicted upon them,” Souza told CNN.

He noted that while the year-round population is about 7,000 people, it grows to 35,000 during the high season which is about a month away. But because many businesses will not be able to open, he anticipates the island will also be impacted economically.

“It will be some time before we can resume normal life on Sanibel,” Souza added. 

The airport in hard-hit Fort Myers — Southwest Florida International Airport — will reopen on Wednesday for limited commercial flight operations, the Lee County Port Authority said in a statement.

Travelers are being asked to use caution and to give themselves extra time to get to the airport due to the effects of Hurricane Ian, which clobbered the region as a Category 4 storm last week.  

RSW will be open from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. with flights operating between 8:30 a.m. and 6 p.m., it said.

Charlotte County public schools will be closed until further notice, according to Public Information Officer Mike Riley.

Riley said that several of the 22 schools were damaged by Hurricane Ian, which battered the southwest Florida county last week. As of late Tuesday, more than half of utility customers in the county were still without power, according to Poweroutage.us.

The district is having all the buildings inspected to make sure everything is safe before students and staff return, he said.

“The storm lasted here for over 12 hours, just hammering away. Nothing is safe right now,” Riley added.

There are about 16,000 students and 2,200 employees in the district, he said. 

Around 400,000 customers in Florida remain without power as of Tuesday evening, according to PowerOutage.us.

After Hurricane Ian made landfall last week in southwest Florida as a Category 4 storm, about 2.5 million outages were reported.

The worst-hit areas are Lee County, with 208,263 outages, and Charlotte County, with 75,721 customers without power.

Outages also continue to be tracked in Sarasota, Manatee, Collier, Hendry, Hardee and DeSoto counties.

Track outages here:

Command and control coordination centers will be set up at barrier islands in southwest Florida, Department of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said Tuesday.

The centers will be set up on Fort Myers Beach, Pine Island, Captiva Island, North Captiva Island, Cayo Costa, Boca Chita, Cabbage Key and Useppa Island.

“We’re talking right now to Sanibel Island local government officials to ensure that they want us to do that,” Guthrie said during a news conference Tuesday in Fort Myers. “That’s the only one that we haven’t actually been able to contact, but we’re confident that we’re gonna be able to do the exact same thing on Sanibel Island.” 

Meanwhile, more than 200,000 people have applied for FEMA assistance and more people are expected to be registered at a Disaster Recovery Center in Fort Myers, Guthrie said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he will likely visit Sanibel Island on Wednesday, a week after the island was ravaged by Hurricane Ian.

DeSantis said he visited nearby Pine Island — where a major bridge has cut off access to the barrier island — on Tuesday.

“We’re gonna have that bridge patched this week,” DeSantis said during a news conference in Fort Myers. “Yesterday we had 130 FDOT trucks that were there working to get this temporary bridge fixed. It will be done this week.”

DeSantis said he has requested a bid for a contractor to assess damage to the main bridge leading to Sanibel Island.

“I’ve not been on the ground… I’m probably gonna go tomorrow,” DeSantis said. “It’s going to require a little bit more TLC than what’s happened on Pine Island.”

City of Sanibel Mayor Holly Smith told CNN on Tuesday that residents will be allowed back on Wednesday to assess the damage to their property, but the island is still “extremely unsafe.”

The National Guard has rescued more than 2,100 people and 50 pets as part of its Hurricane Ian recovery operations, according to the Defense Department.

“Guard soldiers and airmen are providing route clearing, sustainment support, logistics, security, satellite communications, search and rescue, 32 commodities distribution sites, shelter support to FEMA and other local first responders,” said Pentagon press secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder at a news briefing. 

Ryder said that the Guard had “more than 5,198 soldiers and airmen on state active duty from Florida, Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, Washington, Georgia and Montana.”

“National Guard support to hurricane recovery efforts in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina have concluded, but 65 Virginian Army Guard soldiers and three helicopters remain activated in state active duty status for potential high water missions in southeast Virginia,” Ryder said.

Boats are washed in “about 50 to 100 yards in the mangroves” on Sanibel Island, and it’s a challenge to reach them to make sure there are no people in the vessels, according to an emergency rescue worker.

“It’s very difficult to enter and search the boats,” Florida Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 4 rescue specialist Percy Del Aguila told CNN’s Leyla Santiago.

“The hardest part has been when we approach the boats, you’re waiting and hoping the people who may be in there are OK,” said the Orlando-based rescue worker. 

“It’s difficult to be looking at people’s things that are littered all over, where they shouldn’t be,” said Del Aguila. “It’s weird, finding boats where they shouldn’t be, and looking at people’s property when they have lost everything.”

Many of the vessels are in areas that are inaccessible, according to Matt Jaynes, rescue team manager with Task Force 4.

“We’re taking smaller boats that we can to get back into these backwater areas and then climbing through the mangroves with aerial recon to get to these targeted vessels that are back there” to search and make sure they are clear, Jaynes said.

According to Jaynes, “there’s a large population of commercial shrimp vessels and mooring fields, where people live on sailboats and cabin cruisers year-round,” and many people decided to ride out the storm on their vessels. 

“We have a large amount of boats deep in the woods that would normally have people on, so we’re having to go along and find … which ones have been locked and secured,” Jaynes told Santiago.

Jaynes said the team has found some surprises.

“We did run into a gentleman that did ride out the entire storm on his sailboat. He is about 50 feet into the mangroves, sitting probably 15 to 18 feet in the air on top of them. And he has a kayak and means of getting back and forth. He’s perfectly content. And he’s going back and forth getting his supplies and figuring his life out. So we just found him sitting there; he was smoking a cigarette and on his cell phone,” he told CNN.

In a Facebook post Tuesday, Task Force 4 said it continues to conduct search and rescue operations in Fort Myers as well.

“After conducting operations in Matlacha and Punta Gorda, we are focusing our efforts on vessels stranded in and around Matanzas Harbor and Matanzas Pass” in a joint effort with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the task force added. 

Residents will be allowed back on Sanibel Island on Wednesday to assess the damage to their property, but the island is still “extremely unsafe,” according to Mayor Holly Smith.

Houses that might look fine from the outside may still prove to be too damaged to live in, she said.

“When they look and they look inside and it has been bombarded by water for hours upon hours inside, they’re going to understand what they need to see. And my heart is breaking knowing what we’re all going to be facing tomorrow. I’m going to see my home tomorrow as well,” Smith told CNN on Tuesday.

Asked if she knows the state of her own home, Smith said she’s only viewed it during a fly-over.

“My house has been breached. Do I know if it’s habitable or not? I do not,” she said.

The mayor added that it is her belief that despite the dangers on the island, it’s important to get residents back.

“And then we hope they safely get off the island,” she said, adding that at this stage “it is critically important that no one lives on that island.” 

Smith said that the plan is to allow people back onto the island from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that President Biden will be briefed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis when he visits Fort Myers Wednesday to survey damage inflicted by Hurricane Ian. 

Jean-Pierre said the Republican governor will be joined by FEMA administrator Deanne Criswell and other state and local officials who will “provide the President with an operational briefing on the current response and recovery efforts.”

Jean-Pierre previewed the trip saying that Biden will travel to Fort Myers to “reaffirm his commitment to supporting the people of Florida as they recover and rebuild from the devastating storm.”

While there, the President will meet with small business owners and local residents impacted by Hurricane Ian and thank the federal, state and local officials who are working around the clock to provide life-saving assistance, restore power, distribute food and water, remove debris and begin rebuilding efforts.

This is not the first time the two have come together after tragedy struck in Florida. Biden and DeSantis also met after the Surfside condo accident in July 2021.

Officials from DeSoto County Schools in Florida anticipate the high school will remain closed for two months, following a devastating blow from Hurricane Ian.

In a Facebook video message on Monday, Bobby Bennett, superintendent of schools for DeSoto County said “our high school is going to be closed approximately two months and we’re coming up with an emergency plan to make sure that we continue the education for our high school students.”

Bennett said the high school suffered extensive roof and water damage.

Other schools may be ready sooner, Bennett said, noting they had less damage than the high school. 

“Our other schools, were trying to get online as soon as we can safely do that, we’re going to have to have an industrial hygienist that will go in each school to make sure they’re safe and they’re free from mold, that they’re going to be good learning environments for our students, safe places for our employees to work,” he said.

All DeSoto County schools are closed until further notice, due to damage sustained during the storm, the district said in a statement. DeSoto is one of five school districts across the state that have not re-opened since Hurricane Ian, the Florida Department of Education announced Tuesday.

“We will communicate a timeline for reopening schools as soon as we can safely welcome students and staff back into our building,” the district said.

DeSoto County is located north of Lee County in Southwest Florida.

Jayron Purvis, 22, died Friday as the remnants of Hurricane Ian passed through Robersonville, North Carolina.

“He was driving his truck on wet roads during the storm when it left the roadway and into a swamp, where he drowned,” Keith Acree, spokesperson for the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, told CNN in a statement. 

Robersonville is Martin County and about 18 miles north of Greenville, North Carolina.

Purvis is one of four storm-related deaths in the state. 

According to a release from Gov. Roy Cooper’s office, three people died in separate vehicle-related incidents on Friday and one person died from carbon monoxide poisoning after running a generator in a closed garage.

Residents of Lee and Charlotte counties in Florida can receive temporary no-cost roof repairs if their roof was damaged by Hurricane Ian, according to a Charlotte County news release Tuesday.  

“A temporary blue covering with fiber-reinforced sheeting will be installed to help reduce further damage to property until permanent repairs can be made,” the county said. 

“This program is for primary residences or a permanently occupied rental property with less than 50 percent structural damage,” it added. 

Those with vacation rental homes, flat roofs, or roofs made of metal, clay, slate, or asbestos tile do not qualify for the program, according to the release.  

The roof repair program, known as Operation Blue Roof, is run through the US Army Corps of Engineers. Residents must sign up by Oct. 23 to qualify.  

The two counties have the highest death tolls of any other county, according to a CNN tally. Lee County has reported at least 55 deaths while Charlotte County has reported at least 24. And nearly 300,000 customers are still without power, according to PowerOutage.US.  

Approximately 3,000 nursing home residents from 25 nursing centers in Florida remain evacuated after Hurricane Ian tore through the state last week, according to the Florida Health Care Association. 

No deaths related to the hurricane have been reported to the association, spokesperson Kristen Knapp told CNN by email. 

About 8,000 nursing home residents were were previously evacuated as of last Friday. 

Right before losing phone connection, Fort Myers, Florida, resident Stan Pentz told his daughter he was going to drown.

Then the phone cut out, and he wasn’t able to make contact with his family for 20 hours.

Pentz told CNN’s Kate Bolduan that he knew he had to jump out of his condo and start swimming once the water rose to about two feet to the top of his roof.

“I already had about two feet left looking out over the roof, and I just jumped out and started swimming. And I was trying to get to the other building [next door] that was the second floor and I didn’t make it. I got swished away, and I went around the building and I was able to find some bushes and I grabbed onto it, pulled myself in, halfway in, and I just stayed there for hours. Hours, with the wind blowing and the water gushing over my head,” Pentz said.  

“And then the wind shifted back, so it started, the surge was the other way so it was starting to get lower. So I don’t know how many hours it was, but I was able to get down and get across, get to the building, get up to the second floor, found myself a spot … where the wind wasn’t and the rain, and I got into a corner and I stayed there all night,” Pentz continued.

Pentz said thinking about his kids and grandchildren kept him going.

His daughter, Stephanie Downing, told CNN she thought about every possible scenario during the time that she couldn’t make contact with her father.

Once they were reunited, she jokingly said, “I laid my head on his chest and I said, ‘Hey Michael Phelps, you had a nice swim.’”

Pentz said he has lost everything to Hurricane Ian.  

“I lost everything that was in there. Everything that I’ve had for my life, all my life. … Pictures are gone,” he said.

“I remember when I got out of there and I started swimming, and I was swimming and next thing you know, I hit something on my foot and I went ‘oh, that’s my car.’ My car is under there. I lost that, too. Just everything. But, you know, I got my kids,” he said.

Lee County, Florida, Sheriff Carmine Marceno said Tuesday that officials have identified 46 of the 55 people who died in the county as a result of Hurricane Ian. 

“We’ve had 55 total deaths in Lee County,” he said. “Out of those 55, nine bodies are still unidentified.”  

County officials are trying to “properly identify the deceased [and are] working with the family members,” said Marceno during a storm briefing.  

“I’m proud to say that we had over 3,800 calls for service that were holding” or pending since the storm hit. “Welfare checks, calls to 911, all the stuff that we could not get to during these catastrophic events, and today, we are back to the normal flow of traffic,” said the sheriff.  

Lee County is “not holding calls” thanks to the help from other “law enforcement that have come from everywhere to help us lead Lee County Sheriff’s Office,” said Marceno. 

“I want to thank the residents of Lee County and the great residents,” said the sheriff. “We are coming back on our feet.” 

“We took such a catastrophic hit, but everybody wants to help, [its] very heartwarming during these tragic events because in minutes and hours, a lot of people had their lives washed away,” he said.

Elizabeth McGuire, 49, was found dead in her Cape Coral, Florida, home Friday after Hurricane Ian tore through the area, her son told CNN.

Police told her son that his mother had died in her bed holding her cellphone and it looked like she died instantly, Andrew Chedester said.

Her family had last spoken to McGuire on Wednesday and was having trouble reaching her since then, Chedester said.

A Cape Coral Police Department detective knocked on his door Friday and told him of his mother’s death, Chedester said. He had already received a call from his mother’s ex-boyfriend just before that, he said.

“I can’t believe somebody I just saw the other day was completely gone,” Chedester, 24, said of his mom. “She was a friend when you needed it the most,” he said.

CNN also spoke to her mother Susan McGuire, who learned of her daughter’s death through Chedester. She said her daughter had been suffering from blood clots from deep-vein thrombosis and was on disability.

Susan McGuire was stranded on Pine Island and had limited cell service during and after the storm. She was evacuated to the mainland on Sunday by the US Coast Guard and she has an appointment Tuesday at the funeral home to make arrangements with her grandson.

“One hundred blizzards will not cost you what one hurricane will cost you,” said Susan McGuire, who had moved to the area from Maryland a few years ago. “My husband’s business whipped out, my daughter is dead. The destruction is massive. I never had a blizzard take anything away from me.”

Nishelle Harris-Miles from Dayton, Ohio, has been identified as one of the victims of Hurricane Ian, her mother Michele Harris told CNN. 

Harris-Miles traveled to Fort Myers with a group of friends and family to celebrate her 40th birthday and a friend’s birthday, her mother said. She was staying at a vacation rental when Hurricane Ian hit Florida, according to her mother. 

“A lot of us at home told her not to go because a hurricane was coming”, Harris said. “They were under the assumption they were safe.”

Harris-Miles’ mother told CNN that the group of friends quickly realized it was not safe to be in Fort Myers, but were unable to find anyone willing to pick them up from where they were staying. 

Harris said water entered the vacation rental and pushed them towards the ceiling. “They were on top a mattress and 2 of the girls couldn’t swim so they tied themselves together with a sheet to try to keep each other safe. They started kicking and hollering, begging for help. The ceiling then collapsed on them.” 

According to Harris-Miles’ mother, Nishelle noticed a nail had punctured her body while they were trapped in the home. 

A neighbor finally heard the screams coming from inside the property and rescued the group, taking them to a makeshift shelter. 

Harris leaves behind two daughters and two sons, her mother told CNN. 

“She was always the life of the party. She was a caregiver and a loving person. She enjoyed life. My daughter was loved by many people.”

Harris-Miles’ mother said her daughter enjoyed dancing and spending time with her family.

Airbnb is committing $5 million to offer “free, temporary housing” for Hurricane Ian and Fiona victims, the company said in a news release Sunday. 

The company has also donated $250,000 to Florida’s Disaster Relief Fund, the news release added.  

“Our thoughts are with the people displaced by Hurricane Fiona and Hurricane Ian, and the first responders and organizations on the ground who are diligently working to assist in the wake of these disasters,” Catherine Powell, Airbnb’s Global Head of Hosting and executive sponsor of Airbnb.org, said. “We are grateful to Airbnb.org’s nonprofit partners and public agencies that will leverage Airbnb.org and Airbnb resources to connect people in need to a temporary place they can call home while they rebuild.”  

The money will be used for those who may have lost or had their homes severely damaged and to house first responders on the scene, assisting throughout the recovery process.  

The company is working with local nonprofits like Global Empowerment Mission, CORE Response, Operation Blessing and Inspiritus, to find places for people to stay, according to the release.  

Residents looking for immediate accommodations can go online to airbnb.com/d/hurricaneianflorida.

Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno gave an update on search and rescue operations from Fort Myers Beach, Florida.

He said law enforcement from around the state is still on 12-hour shift rotations for Hurricane Ian recovery operations.

Marceno outlined a three-phase rescue and recovery process: Phase one is initial search for life, phase two involves a followup search and phase three is even more detailed.

“Sometimes it’s very difficult to identify a property. There’s no more property lines in some areas, sometimes no buildings or homes,” Marceno said. 

“In phase three, it is very, very detailed, which is a complete evaluation about structures. If there is a structure still standing, has it been compromised? Using the cadaver dogs to go in to sniff out possibly if there’s anyone there or deceased,” he continued.

“It’s going to [take] time, folks, and I need patience,” he said.  

He also said work is underway for temporary ferry service to hard-hit Sanibel Island. He said a temporary bridge may be put into place as early as Saturday.

CNN is reporting at least 106 total deaths from Hurricane Ian after it tore through the southeast United States. 

On Tuesday, Lee County announced an additional death in their county, bringing the total in their county to 55.

Here’s a breakdown of the current death toll from Ian:

In Florida – 102 deaths

In North Carolina – 4 deaths

Four storm-related deaths have been reported in North Carolina, according to a release from Gov. Roy Cooper’s office.  

Naples city manager Jay Boodheshwar told CNN on Tuesday that “hundreds” of households in their Florida city have been displaced from their homes due to Hurricane Ian.

“I would guess it is probably hundreds of households that are going to be experiencing a period of time when they’re not going to be able to be in their homes,” Boodheshwar said.

Boodheshwar said that based on their visual assessment, the city experienced “8 to 9 feet of surge” from Ian. “There was a significant amount of homes and in fact an entire neighborhood was submerged with three feet of water,” he said.

On a positive note, he said that the city had a chance to inspect every damaged structure in the city and they don’t have any confirmed fatalities.

Less than a week after Hurricane Ian made landfall as a Category 4 storm in southwest Florida, 68 of the 75 school districts across the state are open for in-person learning, according to the Florida Department of Education. Two more schools are set to re-open this week, the department noted.

Five school districts in the hardest hit areas remain closed until further notice: Charlotte, DeSoto, Hardee, Lee and Sarasota County Schools. Volusia and Collier Counties are hoping to open this week.

The department is keeping an up-to-the-minute list of re-openings on their website.  

Compounding the re-opening issue, school buildings “represent 98% of all hurricane shelters in the state, with 247 schools serving in this vital capacity during and after Hurricane Ian,” the department said said.

In a statement on Tuesday, The Florida Department of Education said they are “actively engaged in assisting these districts through coordinated activities with state emergency management officials and providing support for temporary staffing, educational staging facilities, infrastructure and operational needs, as well as logistical support for transportation and basic resources like generators and fuel.”

More than 15 million people remain under a coastal flood threat in the Mid-Atlantic as a lingering storm system – that has been hanging around since the weekend – continues to bring higher than normal tides, rainfall and cooler temperatures.

Nearly 3 million of those people are under a coastal flood warning, which warns there could be 1 to 2 feet of inundation above ground level in low-lying areas near shorelines and tidal waterways.

“At this level, widespread roadway flooding occurs in coastal and bayside communities and along inland tidal waterways,” the National Weather Service said. “Many roads become impassable. Some damage to vulnerable structures may begin to occur.”

This warning includes portions of the New Jersey and Delaware coasts. Large breaking waves of 4 to 8 feet are also possible in the surf zone.

A coastal flood advisory has also been issued for nearly 12 million people, including portions of New York, where “minor flooding is expected in the more vulnerable locations near the waterfront and shoreline,” the weather office said.

The storm system should finally move eastward and away from the coast Wednesday, easing the rainfall and coastal impacts.

Hurricane Ian is the nation’s 25th deadliest hurricane, according to data compiled by CNN from local officials and historical data from NOAA. 

Local officials in Florida tell CNN that at least 101 people have been killed in the state due to Ian, and at least 4 have been killed in North Carolina according to officials. 

The deadliest hurricane in the nation’s history hit Galveston, Texas, in 1900, leaving between 8,000 and 12,000 people dead, according to NOAA.  

In more modern times, Hurricane Katrina was the nation’s 3rd deadliest storm, hitting the Gulf Coast in 2005. The storm left 1,500 people dead, according to NOAA. 

As of Tuesday morning, there are still more than 130,000 customers in Lee County, Florida, without power, according to the Lee County Electrical Cooperative. That is almost 60% of the people that it serves.

The cooperative’s public relations director, Karen Ryan, told CNN on Tuesday that their county has “never seen anything of this magnitude” before.

“Well, as you could see from the damage, this was a catastrophic event for our community. Irma and many other hurricanes — I’ve never seen anything of this magnitude in our area,” Ryan said.

She added that the electrical cooperative also serves two barrier islands — Sanibel and Pine — that “lost infrastructure to even gain access to the islands.” 

“So, none of those customers are able to be restored until there is some sort of way to get access,” Ryan said.

Ryan said Lee County is “looking at different options,” including building barges, to get utility trucks to the islands. But she said that it could take “possibly a month” to restore power to some parts.

“The good thing is — for some people — is that when we were able to assess the damage by air, the day after the storm, we did see that some areas were not as impacted as others,” she added.

Hurricane Ian last week slammed into one of the fastest-growing areas of the country, putting hundreds of thousands of people in harm’s way — many of whom had never experienced a hurricane.

Florida has added nearly 3 million people since 2010. And the Fort Myers area, which was ravaged by Ian’s deadly storm surge, was recently named the sixth fastest-growing city in the country by the US Census Bureau.

He are some more things to know about the recent growth in this area that was ravaged by Ian:

Read more about this here.

As those battered by Hurricane Ian contend with the storm’s aftermath, a multitude of federal, state and local agencies, along with nonprofit and charitable groups, are stepping in to provide for Florida residents’ immediate needs and to help them start rebuilding their lives.

More than 83,000 residents have already applied for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

But not all of the help is immediately available, and not everyone can access the aid easily. Also, eligibility for the programs can differ depending on the circumstances.

States hit by natural disasters, like Florida, have to request certain waivers from federal agencies before some funds can flow. And past federal efforts, led by FEMA, have come under scrutiny repeatedly for their inequitable response.

Low-income residents and those who don’t have access to the internet will have a more difficult time finding immediate help and, especially, longer-term aid, said Justin Dorazio, research associate at the left-leaning Center for American Progress.

“It’s a lot harder for certain communities that tend to be left behind in these types of processes and programs,” said Dorazio, who argues that assistance should be based on need and not damage.

Continue reading here.

More than half of the schools in Lee County suffered damage after Hurricane Ian slammed into Florida’s southwest coast last week, according to the School District of Lee County.

“Our preliminary damage assessment finds 54% of our schools are in low need of repair, but 14% have major damage. A few may be beyond repair,” a statement on the district’s Facebook page says. 

Photos from Fort Myers Beach Elementary show desks and debris piled up in hallways, mud filling a cafeteria and storm surge water lines reaching nearly to the tops of door jambs. 

Superintendent Christopher Bernier said in a video message that authorities are aware of the condition of each school building after an initial assessment.

“We have some schools that we believe are ready to open. Others need minimal work. Some of our schools will require significant repairs and as expected there are a few that have damage that may be beyond repair,” he said,

Bernier did not have an estimate on when schools would open, but vowed to do it as quickly and safely as possible.

“We are in the middle of a historic event,” he said. “However, this is not going to stop us from opening our schools as soon as we can. While we are not opening this week, we are certainly not waiting until January.” 

The district is working with the Florida Department of Education to come up with a plan that could potentially include relocating students, teachers and staff. 

Some of the schools are currently being used as evacuation shelters, the superintendent said. 

“We are going to get back to normal. We will retrieve what this storm has tried to take away and prove that we will help move our children, family, staff, and community forward,” he said. “This process will be developmental and transitional, but we will reopen.” 

Lee County will hold a school board meeting on Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET, according to its website.

There are 437,360 customers in Florida still without power as of 7:15 a.m. ET Tuesday, according to PowerOutage.us.

In Lee County, 46.9% of customers remain without power — about 229,119 clients.  

“After making significant progress over the weekend responding to devastating Hurricane Ian, Florida Power & Light Company now expects to complete restoration to 95% of customers who remain without power by Friday, Oct. 7 – two days earlier than originally forecast,” the power company said in a press release Monday.

Sanibel Fire Chief William Briscoe said that crews have evacuated at least 1,000 people since Hurricane Ian ripped through the island.

Briscoe, who gave an update at the City of Sanibel budget meeting Monday, said officials are completing assessments on which homes are livable. 

“I hate to tell you but there are a lot places that are not livable. There are places off their foundation, and it’s very dangerous out there. There are alligators running around, and there are snakes all over the place,” he said.

Effective Wednesday, the city will allow residents with identification to be transported to the island from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. to assess their property, according to City Manager Dana Souza.

Residents will be entering at their own risk and the city cannot provide protection, Souza said, adding that there is limited ability to respond to fires or medical emergencies and people can be injured easily due to debris.

Residents will see signs on their homes that will advise them if their home is livable or not, Souza said.

Restoring power: The National Guard will be flying power crews into Sanibel and Pine Islands to access the damage and start working on restoring power. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday that it is important to get the crews there now and not wait for the bridge to be rebuilt, which could take weeks.

At least five sections of the Sanibel Causeway – which connects Sanibel and Captiva islands to mainland Florida – were washed away by the storm, according to Lee County officials. As authorities look to rebuild, it’s clear that it’s going to be “a long-term recovery,” Sanibel Mayor Holly Smith says.

“That causeway is going to be a long-term recovery and there are plans in motion right now,” she told CNN. “What we have to look at is our community is shut off from the rest of the world. And we’ve got to look at alternate ways to get our people on the island.”

At the moment, Smith says all residents of the island are encouraged to evacuate.

“We are encouraging everyone to get off the island. But we also need to understand that this is everyone’s home, and they need to get back and protect it,” she said, adding that talks are on at various governments levels to help people survey the damage to their property and help them mitigate the damage.

Addressing criticism that Lee County officials did not issue evacuation orders well ahead of time, she said, they did their best.

“This storm was an extremely complex storm. We watched this storm and I think everybody did the best that they could based on that information,” she said Monday. “We can’t take a crystal ball and look back. But what we all did was gave warning — and plenty of warning — of what we saw was coming. And people can make their own decisions whether or not they’re going to stay or go. The majority of the islanders left the island. Some didn’t.”

There have been decades where Sanibel hasn’t had an impact of a storm this bad, she said, adding that there is a sense of complacency which she understands. They always prepare for the worst and hope for the best, she said, and Ian was “the perfect storm of what can be absolutely the worst.”

When asked if the state had a number of how many people remain unaccounted for in the storm, Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said authorities are still working to compile a list. 

Guthrie said that there is a lot of “disbarred data across multiple platforms” that they are working to consolidate. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis has directed someone to do that and officials hope to have a better number in the next couple of days, Guthrie said. 

Power may not be restored in Fort Myers Beach for at least a month after Hurricane Ian destroyed the electrical infrastructure, according to Lee County Manager Roger Desjarlais.

Officials cannot keep people from returning to their homes, but it isn’t safe because of the widespread damage as well as the lack of water and electricity, Desjarlais told a news conference Monday.

Statewide, more than 500,000 customers remain without power, according to PowerOutage.Us.

The county is still unsure of the number of people who are missing and that the search and rescue efforts will continue, Desjarlais said, adding that the death toll is uncertain but that the medical examiner will be releasing information in the coming days. 

When a reporter asked him about whether or not residents were given enough time to evacuate, he said the county made the decision to evacuate at the earliest time possible. 

 “It’s unfortunate that so many people chose not to evacuate. You know, I think I told you the other day we had room for 40,000 people in our shelters, but only 4000 showed up — which means that people made the conscious choice not to evacuate, and it is regretful and you know, no one feels worse than we do about all that. But, based on all of the conditions at the time I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Fort Myers Beach is located on Estero Island in southwest Florida and has a population of around 5,600 people, according to the US Census.

Fort Myers Beach councilmember Dan Allers last week estimated that 90% of the island buildings were gone, including businesses that had been there for decades and had weathered several hurricanes.

“When I say gone, it’s not just the insides of the houses — it’s brick homes, it’s houses that were on stilts, wood homes,” Allers told CNN. “It’s gone.”