‘We watched everything just go flying by’: Deadly Hurricane Ian leaves communities unrecognizable

Days after Hurricane Ian barreled through Florida, rescue teams are still hunting for survivors amid a landscape forever altered by a deadly storm surge that killed dozens and destroyed homes, highways and power lines.

The death toll from Hurricane Ian continues to rise, with a total of at least 51 fatalities. The storm took 44 lives in Florida, according to state officials. Victims ranged in age from 22 to 92. Most drowned. Bodies were found submerged in cars and floating in floodwaters.

Authorities also confirmed four deaths in North Carolina and three in Cuba from a storm that brought dangerous storm surges, wind and flooding.

Hurricane Ian made landfall Wednesday as a powerful Category 4 storm. By Saturday, Ian had weakened to a post-tropical cyclone that dumped rain over West Virginia and Maryland.

On Sunday, the National Weather Service said the storm was expected to bring more rain to Virginia and West Virginia.

“Not quite done with Ian yet as we endure another day of damp, dreary, drizzly, rainy and rather chilly weather conditions,” the National Weather Service announced.

In Florida, the damage stretched from coastal towns to inland cities like Orlando. But Fort Myers and other coastal communities in the southwestern corridor of the state felt the brunt of the storm.

As many as 10,000 people remain unaccounted for, and more than 10,000 people remain in shelters across the state.

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The bridge to Pine Island was destroyed by the storm, leaving it accessible only by boat or air. The volunteer group Medic Corps went door to door looking for residents who wanted to be evacuated.

One man described the horror of being trapped in his home as the water kept rising.

“The water just kept pounding the house and we watched, boats, houses — we watched everything just go flying by,” Joe Conforti said, fighting back tears.

If it wasn’t for his wife suggesting they stand on a table to avoid the rising water, he wouldn’t have made it, he said.

“I started to lose sensibility, because when the water’s at your door and it’s splashing on the door and you’re seeing how fast it’s moving, there’s no way you’re going to survive that.”

Ian also wreaked havoc on the power grid, leaving more than 2.7 million people at one point without power.

As of Sunday, nearly 850,000 customers in Florida still did not have power, according to PowerOutage.us. Nearly 27,000 were without power in North Carolina along with another 15,000 in Virginia.

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President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden plan to travel to Florida on Wednesday, according to the White House.

The president has pledged federal support for Florida, saying Hurricane Ian is “likely to rank among the worst in the nation’s history.”

Since the storm made landfall, law enforcement officials have made more than 1,110 rescues despite the difficult conditions, state officials say.

The Florida National Guard and the Coast Guard are carrying out rescues, relying on helicopters to reach stranded homeowners on barrier islands that lost bridges in the storm.

“We’re flying and we’re operating in areas that are unrecognizable,” Rear Admiral Brendan McPherson told CNN. “There’s no street signs. They don’t look like they used to look like. Buildings that were once benchmarks in the community are no longer there.”

Flooded roadways have left many survivors isolated, with limited cellphone service and a lack of basic needs, including water, electricity and the internet.

With so many areas without cell service, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Saturday that Starlink units created by Elon Musk’s SpaceX will be distributed to provide high-speed connectivity to areas impacted by the storm.

Information from The Associated Press was used to supplement this report.

Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com or on Twitter @Susannah_Bryan