Hurricane Ian hit the coast of Florida, on Wednesday and left behind a trail of death and disaster. The catastrophic force of the storm pounded the Gulf Coast leaving behind immense destruction as it was one of the strongest storms in the past few decades. It later hit the Carolinas. On Sunday, the official death toll was 85 and counting. North Carolina reported at least four deaths, South Carolina, none and the rest of the deaths were from Florida, more than half of which were from a single county, Lee County.
President Joe Biden will be visiting the island of Puerto Rico, today and will visit Florida, on Wednesday, along with first lady Jill Biden, according to a statement from the White House, on Saturday. Earlier, Biden had addressed Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials and others and thanked them for their services.
Hurricane Ian has now weakened into a post-tropical cyclone but officials said that it had caused heavy damages through wind driven ocean surf which had surged into seaside communities and had washed away buildings. Many beach cottages, motels and tourist destinations were in direct line of the storm.
Deanne Criswell, administrator of FEMA told CNN’s “State of the Union” that rescuers were “going house to house” to ensure that everyone was accounted for. Earlier, Criswell had also said that Americans should understand the risks of the locations they live in and could protect their family assets through flood insurance.
According to reports, evacuation notices were given quite late. However, others also said that most of those who decided to stay and weather out the storm were blue collared workers, who had no place to go.
The aftermath of Hurricane Ian has resulted in thousands of Floridians remaining without power from the past few days. According to a report in Voice of America, CoreLogic, which is a company that specializes in property analysis, said that insurers could pay up to $32 for wind-related losses in residential and commercial properties while $15 billion could be the payout for flooding losses.
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