ST. JAMES CITY, Fla. (AP) — Surrounded by Hurricane Ian’s destruction, many residents of 1 Florida island have stayed put for days with out electrical energy or different assets whereas hoping the lone bridge to the mainland is repaired.
Pine Island, the most important barrier island off Florida’s Gulf Coast, has been largely minimize off from the skin world. The pounding storm broken the island’s causeway, rendering its cities solely accessible by boat or plane.
“We feel as a community that if we leave the island — abandon it — nobody is going to take care of that problem of fixing our road in and out,” Pine Island resident Leslie Arias mentioned as small motorboats delivered water and different requirements.
A short lived bridge to span the broken elements of the causeway can be prepared Wednesday afternoon, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis mentioned. It will assist in restoring electrical energy, delivering gas and provides, and reopening the island’s grocery store, he mentioned. By Wednesday night time, visitors was restricted to official automobiles solely.
The governor spoke whereas visiting Matlacha, a neighborhood by itself small island astride the roughly 5-mile (8-kilometer) causeway. On Tuesday, an orange excavator might be seen scooping bucketfuls of earth into a large hole the place the island meets a cement bridge, apparently eroded by the storm. Nearby, a part of a broken constructing sagged into the water.
Piles of rubble and particles have changed most of the Pine Island’s houses. Power traces and their picket poles litter yards and roadways.
The 17-mile-long (27 km) island is larger than Manhattan however is generally rural and has no road lights or sandy seashores, in accordance with the island’s civic affiliation. It has about 9,000 year-round residents however the inhabitants doubles between Christmas and Easter.
Jay Pick, who has been on the island since May to assist his in-laws, mentioned winds from Ian blew the home’s roof off.
“We’re all safe, though,” Pick mentioned Tuesday afternoon. “We’re blessed. Driving around seeing what some people have compared to what we have left, you get that survivor-guilt thing. I’m trying not to. I’m trying to be happy for what we do have left.”
Per week after the Category 4 storm hit, the complete breadth of the destruction throughout southwest Florida remains to be coming into focus. Utility staff pushed to revive energy Wednesday, as crews looked for anybody nonetheless trapped inside flooded or broken houses,
The variety of storm-related deaths has risen to a minimum of 98 in latest days, 89 of them in Florida. Among the brand new deaths reported Wednesday by health workers throughout the state had been a number of drownings. One 82-year-old man died after evacuating with out his medication. In hardest-hit Lee County, Florida, the overwhelming majority of individuals killed by the hurricane had been over age 50.
Five folks had been additionally killed in North Carolina, three in Cuba and one in Virginia since Ian made landfall on the Caribbean island Sept. 27, a day earlier than it reached Florida. After roaring northeast throughout Florida and into the Atlantic, the hurricane made one other landfall in South Carolina earlier than pushing into the mid-Atlantic states.
Biden toured a few of Florida’s hurricane-ravaged areas on Wednesday, surveying injury by helicopter after which strolling on foot alongside DeSantis. The Democratic president and Republican governor pledged to place political rivalries apart to assist rebuild houses, companies and lives.
Biden emphasised at a briefing with native officers that the hassle will take months or years.
“The only thing I can assure you is that the federal government will be here until it’s finished,” Biden mentioned.
Jeff Rioux, a normal contractor in Fort Myers and a registered Republican, welcomed the president’s go to.
“The world does need to see what happened here,” Rioux mentioned as he mopped up flooring and tore out soaked drywall from his flooded home. “At some point you’ve got to put politics aside. People are hurting down here. It’s not right or left, it’s America at the end of the day.”
At a briefing earlier within the day, DeSantis made some extent of praising the Federal Emergency Management Agency together with native and state governments, saying coordination has been distinctive.
“I will say, from local, state coordination and FEMA — there’s been less bureaucracy holding us back in this one than probably any one I’ve ever seen,” DeSantis mentioned, referring to earlier hurricanes.
The governor additionally mentioned operating water has been restored throughout a lot of the affected zone.
Lee County had been with out operating water because the hurricane handed over. But state Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie mentioned Wednesday that every one 13 of the county’s water therapy crops are pushing water into distribution.
Back on Pine Island, small motorboats have been the one manner to herald provides because the storm hit. Arias, the resident who selected to remain, mentioned Tuesday that many who remained are supporting one another.
“We have now gathered a lot of resources, not only donations but volunteers as well,” Arias mentioned. “It’s a wonderful thing to see how the community has come together. In every end of the island … there is a family member or a neighbor helping that other neighbor.”
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Associated Press reporters Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee and Curt Anderson and Bobby Caina Calvan in Fort Myers, Florida, contributed to this report.
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For extra protection of Hurricane Ian, go to: https://apnews.com/hub/hurricanes