Hurricane Ian death toll hits 101 as evacuees return to mud and rubble

A man walks along the waterfront littered with debris. Photo / AP

Rotting fish and garbage lie scattered in Sanibel Island's streets in the US state of Florida.

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, 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, 98 of those deaths were in Florida. Five people were also killed in North Carolina, three in Cuba and one in Virginia.

A couple stand outside their damaged winter home. Photo / AP

Ian is the second-deadliest storm to hit the mainland United States in the 21st century, behind Hurricane Katrina, which left more than 1800 people dead in 2005. The deadliest hurricane ever to hit the US was the Great Galveston Hurricane in 1900 that killed as many as 8000 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.

The broken causeway to Sanibel Island might not be passable until the end of the month. In the meantime, residents like Pamela Brislin arrived by boat to see what they could salvage.

This morning Sheriff Carmine Marceno took a tour of Lee County to begin assessing damage caused by Hurricane Ian.
We are devastated. Our hearts go out to every resident who is impacted. The Lee County Sheriffs Office is mobile and will stop at nothing to help our residents. pic.twitter.com/S4OsB8ajRv

— Carmine Marceno - Florida’s Law and Order Sheriff (@SheriffLeeFL) September 29, 2022

Brislin stayed through the storm, but is haunted by what happened afterward. When she checked on a neighbour, she found the woman crying. Her husband had passed away, his body laid out on a picnic table until help could arrive. Another neighbour'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 neighbour's dog.

Ian, a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 240km/h, unleashed torrents of rain and caused extensive flooding and damage. The deluge turned streets into gushing rivers. Backyard waterways overflowed into neighbourhoods, sometimes by more than 3.5 metres, tossing boats onto yards and roadways. Beaches disappeared, as ocean surges pushed shorelines far inland.

Cars and debris from washed away homes line a canal in Florida. Photo / AP

Sanibel Island had ordered a complete curfew after the storm passed, allowing search and rescue teams to do their work. That meant residents who evacuated the island were technically blocked from returning.

But the city of about 7000 started allowing residents back from 7am to 7pm 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, but it too was hit hard by the storm.

Cindy Bickford's house was still standing. Much of the damage was from the flooding, which left a thick layer of rancid muck on her floors.

"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.

She was hopeful that much could 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."

The storm caused billions of dollars in damage and killed dozens of people, the majority of victims in Florida. Even a week after it passed through, officials warn that more dead could still be found as they continued to inspect the damage.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, at a news conference on Thursday, trumpeted 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.

The damaged causeway leading to Sanibel Island. Photo / AP

He said rescue workers have conducted around 2500 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 in areas devastated by the hurricane had been showing great resilience over the past week.

US 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 emphasised at a briefing with local officials that the effort to rebuild could take years.