Hurricane Ian death toll rises to at least 103
More than 100 people have been reported dead in Florida and North Carolina five days after Hurricane Ian slammed into the west coast of Florida as a powerful Category 4 storm and then continued up the East Coast. Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno announced Monday that 54 deaths have now been confirmed in that county, as the total number of Florida fatalities rose to at least 99 as of Monday night.
The CBS News figure is higher than Florida's official state tally because in some cases, county officials are confirming deaths more quickly than state officials.
Four storm-related deaths have been reported in North Carolina, bringing the U.S. toll to at least 103.
Before hitting Florida, the storm killed at least three people in Cuba, where it knocked out power across the island.
Days after Ian carved a path of destruction from Florida to the Carolinas, the dangers persisted, and even worsened in some places. It was clear the road to recovery from this monster storm will be long and painful.
And Ian was still not done. The storm doused Virginia with rain Sunday, and officials warned that major flooding was possible along its coast Monday.
Ian's remnants moved offshore and formed a nor'easter that was expected to pile even more water into an already inundated Chesapeake Bay and threatened to cause the most significant tidal flooding event in Virginia's Hampton Roads region in the last 10 to 15 years, said Cody Poche, a National Weather Service meteorologist. Norfolk and Virginia Beach declared states of emergency.
Other portions of the Atlantic coast could see higher tides than usual. The island town of Chincoteague in Virginia declared a state of emergency Sunday and strongly recommended that residents in certain areas evacuate. The Eastern Shore and northern portion of North Carolina's Outer Banks were also likely to be impacted.
With the death toll rising, Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said the federal government was ready to help in a huge way, focusing first on victims in Florida, which took the brunt of one of the strongest storms to make landfall in the United States. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden plan to visit the state on Wednesday.
Flooded roadways and washed-out bridges to barrier islands left many people isolated amid limited cellphone service and a lack of basic amenities such as water, electricity and the internet. Officials warned that the situation in many areas isn't expected to improve for several days because waterways are overflowing leaving the rain that fell with nowhere to go.
About 600,000 homes and businesses in Florida were still without electricity on Monday morning, down from a peak of 2.6 million.
The current goal is to restore power by Sunday to customers whose power lines and other electric infrastructure is still intact, Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said Monday. It does not include homes or areas where infrastructure needs to be rebuilt.
More than 1,600 people have been rescued statewide, according to Florida's emergency management agency.
Rescue missions were ongoing, especially to barrier islands near Fort Myers in southwest Florida that were cut off from the mainland when storm surges destroyed causeways and bridges.
The state will build a temporary traffic passageway for the largest one, Pine Island, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Sunday, adding that an allocation had been approved for the Department of Transportation to build it this week.
"It's not going to be a full bridge, you're going to have to go over it probably at 5 miles an hour or something, but it'll at least let people get in and off the island with their vehicles," the governor said at a news conference.
In Virginia, the U.S. Navy postponed the first-ever deployment of the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford, the nation's most advanced aircraft carrier, according to a statement from the Navy's 2nd Fleet. The carrier and other U.S. ships were scheduled to leave Norfolk on Monday for training exercises in the Atlantic Ocean with vessels from other NATO Countries.
Coast Guard, municipal and private crews have been using helicopters, boats and even Jet Skis to evacuate people over the past several days.
In rural Seminole County, north of Orlando, residents donned waders, boots and bug spray to paddle to their flooded homes Sunday.
Ben Bertat found 4 inches of water in his house by Lake Harney after kayaking there.
"I think it's going to get worse because all of this water has to get to the lake," said Bertat, pointing to the water flooding a nearby road. "With ground saturation, all this swamp is full and it just can't take any more water. It doesn't look like it's getting any lower."