Fort Myers Beach Mayor Murphy says search and rescue is their primary focus
FORT MYERS - The devastation left behind on Fort Myers Beach by Hurricane Ian is unimaginable.
Fort Myers Beach Mayor Ray Murphy, who has been on the island every day since Ian, said their focus is on search and rescue. After that, he said, they can get to clean up.
Murphy said they've cleared Estero Boulevard to the best of their ability. It's the main road that takes you into, out of, and across the island.
He said search and rescue teams have been working to find people and bring them to safety.
"The USAR teams are in there now doing the search and rescue. They have a number of sweeps that they have to make. They have a couple of teams, one starts at one end of the island, one starts at the other end, and they work towards the middle. Then those two teams are broken up into smaller teams that go street by street, checking under debris, hopefully finding life people, and unfortunately maybe not. So that's the process. The teams come down, they have the hasty search, they have these other searches, and then after that, they clear out these areas. And then we can move on from there. It's all on their timetable. So as soon as they are done with their work, then we come in after them," said Murphy.
The USAR Florida Task Force Teams have begun deploying cadaver dogs to several different areas.