Ian evacuees return to mud, rubble as death toll hits 101
Ian evacuees return to mud, rubble as death toll hits 101
Following Hurricane Ian’s destruction, many residents Florida’s Pine island have stayed put for days without electricity and other resources while hoping the lone bridge to the mainland is repaired. (Oct. 5) (AP Video/Stephen Smith)
A menagerie of parrots has been rescued from a Pine Island bird sanctuary after its owners refused to evacuate without them in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. (Oct. 5) (AP Video/Robert Bumsted)
Bruce Hickey, 70, walks along the waterfront littered with debris, including shrimp boats, in the mobile home park where he and his wife Kathy have a winter home, a trailer originally purchased by Kathy’s mother in 1979, on San Carlos Island, Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, one week after the passage of Hurricane Ian. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Snowbirds Bruce and Kathy Hickey, both 70, stand outside their damaged winter home, a trailer originally purchased by Kathy’s mother in 1979, in a mobile home park on San Carlos Island, in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, one week after the passage of Hurricane Ian. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A dead fish lies in the street as residents of Florida’s Gulf Coast barrier islands are returning to assess the damage from Hurricane Ian, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Sanibel Island, Fla., despite limited access to some areas. (AP Photo/Scott Smith)
A resident navigates a canoe to his flooded home on Whitecomb Drive along the shore of Lake Harney in Geneva, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022. Despite the lake leveling off at a crested 8-feet above normal level, floodwaters from the St. Johns River have put his neighborhood underwater and continue to inundate other areas of Geneva and Sanford following historic levels of rainfall from Hurricane Ian last week. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)
Cars and debris from washed away homes line a canal in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, one week after the passage of Hurricane Ian. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Resident Pamela Brislin who has lived on Sanibel Island since 2020 cleans up the damage from Hurricane Ian, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Sanibel Island, Fla. Residents of Florida’s Gulf Coast barrier islands are returning to assess the damage from Hurricane Ian, despite limited access to some areas. (AP Photo/Scott Smith)
Human remains canine detection handler Nyssa Meyerdirk, with Texas Task Force 1 urban search and rescue, works with her dog Artimys at a site where dogs had previously indicated the possibility of human remains, one week after the passage of Hurricane Ian, on Estero Island in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022. After removing layers from the debris pile, the dogs no longer indicated interest and the search was called off at that location.( AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Joe Kuczko puts up a tarp next to his mobile home, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Pine Island, Fla., in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Robin McDougall cleans out debris from her car’s engine compartment with a leaf blower, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Pine Island, Fla., in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
In this aerial photo made in a flight provided by mediccorps.org, damage from Hurricane Ian is seen on the causeway leading to Sanibel Island from Fort Myers, Fla., Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Nancy Anderson sits in her mobile home as workers remove debris, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., a week after Hurricane Ian. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
A worker picks up debris in a mobile home damaged by Hurricane Ian, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Fort Myers Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Snowbirds Bruce, left, and Kathy Hickey, both 70, stand inside their damaged winter home, a trailer originally purchased by Kathy’s mother in 1979 and which they had recently redecorated, in a mobile home park on San Carlos Island, in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, one week after the passage of Hurricane Ian. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Kathy Hickey, 70, carefully climbs across a ruined trailer as she picks her way through debris to where she and her husband Bruce had a winter home, a trailer originally purchased by Kathy’s mother in 1979, on San Carlos Island in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, one week after the passage of Hurricane Ian. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Residents of Florida’s Gulf Coast barrier islands are returning to assess the damage from Hurricane Ian, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Sanibel Island, Fla., despite limited access to some areas. (AP Photo/Scott Smith)
CORRECTS SPELLING OF LAST NAME TO ANDERSON, NOT ANDREWS - Nancy Anderson walks back to her mobile home, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., that was damaged by Hurricane Ian, (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Cindy Bickford looks over her home damaged in Hurricane Ian, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Pine Island, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Steve Bermel, 61, uses a reciprocating saw to cut into the walls of his mobile home damaged by Hurricane Ian, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Pine Island, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Following Hurricane Ian’s destruction, many residents Florida’s Pine island have stayed put for days without electricity and other resources while hoping the lone bridge to the mainland is repaired. (Oct. 5) (AP Video/Stephen Smith)
Bruce Hickey, 70, walks along the waterfront littered with debris, including shrimp boats, in the mobile home park where he and his wife Kathy have a winter home, a trailer originally purchased by Kathy’s mother in 1979, on San Carlos Island, Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, one week after the passage of Hurricane Ian. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Bruce Hickey, 70, walks along the waterfront littered with debris, including shrimp boats, in the mobile home park where he and his wife Kathy have a winter home, a trailer originally purchased by Kathy’s mother in 1979, on San Carlos Island, Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, one week after the passage of Hurricane Ian. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Snowbirds Bruce and Kathy Hickey, both 70, stand outside their damaged winter home, a trailer originally purchased by Kathy’s mother in 1979, in a mobile home park on San Carlos Island, in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, one week after the passage of Hurricane Ian. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Snowbirds Bruce and Kathy Hickey, both 70, stand outside their damaged winter home, a trailer originally purchased by Kathy’s mother in 1979, in a mobile home park on San Carlos Island, in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, one week after the passage of Hurricane Ian. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A dead fish lies in the street as residents of Florida’s Gulf Coast barrier islands are returning to assess the damage from Hurricane Ian, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Sanibel Island, Fla., despite limited access to some areas. (AP Photo/Scott Smith)
A dead fish lies in the street as residents of Florida’s Gulf Coast barrier islands are returning to assess the damage from Hurricane Ian, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Sanibel Island, Fla., despite limited access to some areas. (AP Photo/Scott Smith)
A resident navigates a canoe to his flooded home on Whitecomb Drive along the shore of Lake Harney in Geneva, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022. Despite the lake leveling off at a crested 8-feet above normal level, floodwaters from the St. Johns River have put his neighborhood underwater and continue to inundate other areas of Geneva and Sanford following historic levels of rainfall from Hurricane Ian last week. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)
A resident navigates a canoe to his flooded home on Whitecomb Drive along the shore of Lake Harney in Geneva, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022. Despite the lake leveling off at a crested 8-feet above normal level, floodwaters from the St. Johns River have put his neighborhood underwater and continue to inundate other areas of Geneva and Sanford following historic levels of rainfall from Hurricane Ian last week. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)
Cars and debris from washed away homes line a canal in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, one week after the passage of Hurricane Ian. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Resident Pamela Brislin who has lived on Sanibel Island since 2020 cleans up the damage from Hurricane Ian, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Sanibel Island, Fla. Residents of Florida’s Gulf Coast barrier islands are returning to assess the damage from Hurricane Ian, despite limited access to some areas. (AP Photo/Scott Smith)
Resident Pamela Brislin who has lived on Sanibel Island since 2020 cleans up the damage from Hurricane Ian, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Sanibel Island, Fla. Residents of Florida’s Gulf Coast barrier islands are returning to assess the damage from Hurricane Ian, despite limited access to some areas. (AP Photo/Scott Smith)
Human remains canine detection handler Nyssa Meyerdirk, with Texas Task Force 1 urban search and rescue, works with her dog Artimys at a site where dogs had previously indicated the possibility of human remains, one week after the passage of Hurricane Ian, on Estero Island in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022. After removing layers from the debris pile, the dogs no longer indicated interest and the search was called off at that location.( AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Human remains canine detection handler Nyssa Meyerdirk, with Texas Task Force 1 urban search and rescue, works with her dog Artimys at a site where dogs had previously indicated the possibility of human remains, one week after the passage of Hurricane Ian, on Estero Island in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022. After removing layers from the debris pile, the dogs no longer indicated interest and the search was called off at that location.( AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Joe Kuczko puts up a tarp next to his mobile home, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Pine Island, Fla., in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Robin McDougall cleans out debris from her car’s engine compartment with a leaf blower, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Pine Island, Fla., in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
In this aerial photo made in a flight provided by mediccorps.org, damage from Hurricane Ian is seen on the causeway leading to Sanibel Island from Fort Myers, Fla., Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
In this aerial photo made in a flight provided by mediccorps.org, damage from Hurricane Ian is seen on the causeway leading to Sanibel Island from Fort Myers, Fla., Friday, Sept. 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Nancy Anderson sits in her mobile home as workers remove debris, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., a week after Hurricane Ian. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
A worker picks up debris in a mobile home damaged by Hurricane Ian, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Fort Myers Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Snowbirds Bruce, left, and Kathy Hickey, both 70, stand inside their damaged winter home, a trailer originally purchased by Kathy’s mother in 1979 and which they had recently redecorated, in a mobile home park on San Carlos Island, in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, one week after the passage of Hurricane Ian. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Snowbirds Bruce, left, and Kathy Hickey, both 70, stand inside their damaged winter home, a trailer originally purchased by Kathy’s mother in 1979 and which they had recently redecorated, in a mobile home park on San Carlos Island, in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, one week after the passage of Hurricane Ian. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Kathy Hickey, 70, carefully climbs across a ruined trailer as she picks her way through debris to where she and her husband Bruce had a winter home, a trailer originally purchased by Kathy’s mother in 1979, on San Carlos Island in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, one week after the passage of Hurricane Ian. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Kathy Hickey, 70, carefully climbs across a ruined trailer as she picks her way through debris to where she and her husband Bruce had a winter home, a trailer originally purchased by Kathy’s mother in 1979, on San Carlos Island in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022, one week after the passage of Hurricane Ian. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Residents of Florida’s Gulf Coast barrier islands are returning to assess the damage from Hurricane Ian, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Sanibel Island, Fla., despite limited access to some areas. (AP Photo/Scott Smith)
Residents of Florida’s Gulf Coast barrier islands are returning to assess the damage from Hurricane Ian, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Sanibel Island, Fla., despite limited access to some areas. (AP Photo/Scott Smith)
CORRECTS SPELLING OF LAST NAME TO ANDERSON, NOT ANDREWS - Nancy Anderson walks back to her mobile home, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., that was damaged by Hurricane Ian, (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
CORRECTS SPELLING OF LAST NAME TO ANDERSON, NOT ANDREWS - Nancy Anderson walks back to her mobile home, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Fort Myers Beach, Fla., that was damaged by Hurricane Ian, (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Cindy Bickford looks over her home damaged in Hurricane Ian, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Pine Island, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
Steve Bermel, 61, uses a reciprocating saw to cut into the walls of his mobile home damaged by Hurricane Ian, Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022, in Pine Island, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
SANIBEL ISLAND, Fla. (AP) — Rotting fish and garbage lie scattered in Sanibel Island’s streets. On the mainland, debris from washed-away homes is heaped in a canal like matchsticks. Huge shrimp boats sit perched amid the remains of a mobile home park.
“Think of a snow globe. Pick it up and shake it — that’s what happened,” said Fred Szott.
For the past three days, he and his wife Joyce have been making trips to their damaged mobile home in Fort Myers, cleaning up after Hurricane Ian slammed into Florida’s Gulf Coast.
As for the emotional turbulence, he says: “You either hold on, or you lose it.”
The number of storm-related deaths rose to at least 101 on Thursday, eight days after the storm made landfall in southwest Florida. According to reports from the Florida Medical Examiners Commission, 92 of those deaths were in Florida. Five people were also killed in North Carolina, three in Cuba and one in Virginia.
Ian is the second-deadliest storm to hit the mainland U.S. in the 21st century behind Hurricane Katrina, which left more than 1,800 people dead in 2005. The deadliest hurricane ever to hit the U.S. was the Great Galveston Hurricane in 1900 that killed as many as 8,000 people.
Residents of Florida’s devastated barrier islands are starting to return, assessing the damage to homes and businesses despite limited access to some areas. Pamela Brislin arrived by boat to see what she could salvage.
Brislin had stayed through the storm, but is haunted by what happened afterward. When she checked on a neighbor, she found the woman crying. Her husband had passed away, his body laid out on a picnic table until help could arrive. Another neighbor’s house caught fire. The flames were so large that they forced Breslin to do what the hurricane could not — flee with her husband and a neighbor’s dog.
Ian, a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 150 miles per hour (240 kilometers per hour), unleashed torrents of rain and caused extensive flooding and damage. The deluge turned streets into gushing rivers. Backyard waterways overflowed into neighborhoods, sometimes by more than a dozen feet (3.5 meters), tossing boats onto yards and roadways. Beaches disappeared, as ocean surges pushed shorelines far inland. Officials estimate the storm has caused billions of dollars in damage.
The broken causeway to Sanibel Island might not be passable until the end of the month. Officials on the island had ordered a complete curfew after the storm passed, allowing search and rescue teams to do their work. That meant residents who evacuated were technically blocked from returning.
The city of about 7,000 started allowing residents back from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday. City manager Dana Souza told residents in a Facebook Live stream that he wished the municipality had resources to provide transportation but that, for now, residents would have to arrange visits by private boat.
Pine Island is closer to the mainland than Sanibel, and temporary repairs to its causeway were finished on Wednesday.
But the island was hit hard by the storm. Cindy Bickford’s house is still standing. Much of the damage was from flooding, which left a thick layer of rancid muck on her floors. She’s hopeful that a lot can be salvaged.
“We’ll tear the home apart so we can live in it,” said Bickford, who wore a T-shirt that said “Relax,” “Refresh” and “Renew.”
“It’s not our stuff we’re worried about. It’s our community. Pine Island is extremely close-knit,” said Bickford, who arrived Thursday for the first time.
Jay Pick said the island still feels cut off from the outside, and a bit chaotic.
“People are trying to do the right thing and help people, and yet other people are stepping up and taking their gas cans and stealing generators,” he said.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, at a news conference Thursday in the Sarasota County town of Nokomis, praised the widespread restoration of running water through the storm-hit zone and the work toward restoring power. Some 185,000 customers remain without electricity, down from highs above 2.6 million across the state.
He said rescue workers have conducted around 2,500 missions, particularly on barrier islands on the Gulf coast as well as in inland areas that have seen intense flooding. More than 90,000 structures have been inspected and checked for survivors, he said.
He said residents areas devastated by the hurricane had been showing great resilience over the past week.
President Joe Biden toured some of Florida’s hurricane-hit areas on Wednesday, surveying damage by helicopter and then walking on foot alongside DeSantis. The Democratic president and Republican governor pledged to put political rivalries aside to help rebuild homes, businesses and lives. Biden emphasized at a briefing with local officials that the effort could take years.
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Calvan reported from Pine Island, Florida. Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee and Ian Mader in Miami contributed to this report.
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This story has been updated to correct the number of deaths in Florida. It is 92, not 98.