September 29, 2022 Hurricane Ian updates

Matlacha, a tiny island between Pine Island and the Florida mainland, is completely cut off after Hurricane Ian, according to resident Chip Farrar.

As a result, Farrar said people on the island cannot drive to the mainland. A bridge located nearby has also collapsed, Farrar said. 

Farrar has lived in Florida for more than 20 years and had never seen a storm as bad as Hurricane Ian.  

“We were as prepared as we could be,” Farrar said. “I’ve been here since 2000. And I’ve never seen anything remotely close to this, including Charley.”

Charley struck Florida in 2004 as a Category 4 hurricane.

More than 2.3 million Florida customers are without power, as outages are slowly fixed, according to PowerOutage.us.

Earlier on Thursday, 2.6 million customers were reported to be in the dark.

Some of the counties with the highest percentage of customers without power are still Hardee, Charlotte, Lee and Highlands counties.

In addition, 10 more counties are reporting more than 10,000 customers without power.

Damaged and missing homes are seen in Fort Myers Beach, Florida.

Following a tour of storm-ravaged parts of the state Thursday, Gov. Ron DeSantis said some of the damage he saw was “indescribable.”

At a news conference Thursday night, the governor said the worst damage was on Fort Myers Beach.

DeSantis said he is still not prepared to discuss a statewide death toll from Ian, but said they “absolutely expect to have mortality from this hurricane.” A CNN tally of reports from local officials indicates that at least 17 people died in Florida due to the storm.

The governor said rescue crews are still responding to people on Sanibel Island, where the only bridge providing access to the island is now impassible, but most people they’ve encountered want to stay in their homes.

The US Coast Guard conducted 68 rescue operations in Florida on Thursday, according to Rear Admiral Brendan McPherson, Commander of the US Coast Guard’s 7th District.

McPherson told CNN that count was included in the 700 state-wide rescues that Gov. Ron DeSantis reported Thursday night. 

“Very early in the morning, we had eight helicopters that were blanketing the area of Southwest Florida,” McPherson said.

Several rescues were on Sanibel Island, which has been cut off after a major bridge to the mainland collapsed, he said.

“We actually conducted some rescues, as the governor said, we also saw people that were safe and sound. Now whether they’re going to be able to stay there many more days without the services that they need. I’m a little bit doubtful about that,” McPherson said, adding that crews will continue to search for and rescue people on Sanibel Island.

“We’re certainly going to redouble our efforts tomorrow to make sure that we haven’t missed anybody,” McPherson said.

Some background: Sanibel City Manager Dana Souza reported two fatalities on Sanibel Island. CNN is currently reporting there are five deaths in Lee County.  

Residents who didn’t evacuate Sanibel Island are stranded after Hurricane Ian’s wrath caused significant breaches to the causeway that links them to the Florida mainland. 

About 200 households did not evacuate prior to the storm, Mayor Holly Smith said. 

Due to the damage to the causeway, first responders are only able to get to the island by boat to make assessments.

Approximately 40 people were taken off the island Thursday, 12 of whom had sustained injuries, Holly said.

Sanibel City Manager Dana Souza reported two fatalities on Sanibel Island. CNN is currently reporting there are five deaths across Lee County.  

According to Souza, officials will return to the island Friday and resume their assessments. Emergency responders will search most of the properties on the island and make sure no one is left, he said.

There is limited equipment on the island to remove debris because it was evacuated prior to the storm.

“The island is in rough shape, Sanibel Police Chief William Dalton said. “The power infrastructure is severely damaged. I would be surprised that there’s a single structure on the island that hasn’t been impacted by the storm.”

Florida Director of Emergency Management Kevin Guthrie is urging people to be aware of potentially dangerous hazards in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian as residents start to clean up — including generators, chainsaws and fallen power lines.

He said at a news conference Thursday that there are “significantly more” indirect deaths from disasters that are “100% avoidable” than deaths from a disaster itself.

Guthrie told Floridians to watch for power lines that are mixed inside fallen trees and warned against getting on ladders and roofs.

“People need to be extremely careful,” he added.

More than 200 people have been rescued by the Fort Myers Fire Department following Hurricane Ian, the city’s Mayor Kevin Anderson told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Thursday night.

Meanwhile, search and rescue operations appear to have come to an end, he said.

The city has not had any fatalities, he added.

In this aerial view, parts of Sanibel Causeway are washed away along with sections of the bridge.

The Sanibel Causeway — the only connection to the mainland for Sanibel and Captiva islands in southwest Florida — will need either a major overhaul or a complete rebuild after the devastation of Hurricane Ian, Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a news conference Thursday evening.

CNN previously reported that Ian’s storm surge washed away at least three parts of the roadway.

“That’s the only way on Sanibel and Captiva island, so the operations to help people there have mostly been by air,” DeSantis added.

Earlier Thursday, the governor described the storm surge that hit the area as “biblical.”

A boat sits in the middle of a street in Fort Myers, Florida on Thursday.

Hurricane Ian is shaping up to be the largest natural disaster in Florida history, according to the state’s fire marshal.

Florida is also seeing its largest-ever emergency response, Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Thursday night. In Florida, the state CFO also serves as state fire marshal.

“The United States Coast Guard has been amazing,” Patronis said. “They have done over 30 aerial rescues in the last 24 hours on 30 sorties.”

Meanwhile, 24,000 utility workers are trying to restore power.

The Florida National Guard has delivered teams to Captiva Island where a major bridge collapsed. Patronis said his crews are going door-to-door there, checking on people that may be stranded.

The fire marshal said the devastation in the Fort Myers area reminds him of the damage left behind by Hurricane Michael in 2018, when communities with older infrastructure and older building codes also took the brunt of the storm.

Gov. Henry McMaster told residents of South Carolina to pay attention to the warnings for Hurricane Ian’s track ahead of the system making landfall Friday morning. 

McMaster said that residents should prep for the storm before it arrives.

“Doesn’t make much difference whether this comes in at Hurricane strength or below at storm strength or somewhere on the line, cause it’s going to be blowing strong winds and it’s going to be all over the state at different levels, as you can see if you go look at those maps,” he said.