In Ian’s wake, Florida residents endure slow wait for power

BONITA SPRINGS: Nearly a week after Hurricane Ian smashed into Florida and carved a path of destruction into the Carolinas, hundreds of thousands of people faced another warm day without electricity Tuesday as rescuers pressed on with their search for anyone trapped inside flooded and damaged homes.

At least 79 people have been confirmed dead from the storm: 71 in Florida, five in North Carolina and three in Cuba since Ian made landfall on the Caribbean island on Sept. 27, a day before it reached Florida.

The number of storm-related deaths has risen in recent days because of the dangers posed by cleaning up and as search and rescue crews comb through some of in the hardest-hit areas of Florida. Officials said that as of Monday, more than 2,350 people had been rescued throughout the state.

There have been deaths in vehicle wrecks, drownings and accidents. A man drowned after becoming trapped under a vehicle. Another got trapped trying to climb through a window. And a woman died when a gust of wind knocked her off her porch as she was smoking a cigarette as the storm was approaching, authorities said.

In hardest hit Lee County, all 45 people killed by the hurricane were over age 50.

As floodwaters begin to recede, power restoration has become job one.

In Naples, Kelly Sedgwick was just seeing news footage Monday of the devastation Ian had caused, thanks to power that was restored four days after the hurricane slammed into her Gulf Coast community of roughly 22,000 people. She said she was “relieved” to have her power back and praised the crews for their hard work: “They’ve done a remarkable job.”

A few miles north along the coast in Bonita Springs, Catalina Mejilla’s family wasn’t as lucky. She was still using a borrowed generator to try to keep her kids and their grandfather cool amid the temperatures in the typically humid area that reached the upper 80s (about 30 degrees Celsius).

“The heat is unbearable,” Mejilla said. “When there’s no power ... we can’t make food, we don’t have gas.” Her mother has trouble breathing and had to go to a friend’s house that had electricity. “I think they should give power to the people who are most in need.”

Ian knocked out power to 2.6 million customers across Florida after it roared ashore with 150 mph (241 kph) winds and a powerful storm surge.

Since then, crews have been feverishly working to restore electricity infrastructure. State officials said they expect power to be restored by Sunday to customers whose power lines and other electric infrastructure is still intact.

About 430,000 homes and businesses in Florida were still without power early Tuesday.

Eric Silagy, Chairman and CEO of Florida Power & Light — the largest power provider in the state — said he understands the frustration and that 21,000 utility workers from 30 states are working as hard as they can to restore power as quickly as possible. The utility expects to have power restored to 95% of its service areas by the end of the day Friday, he said.

The remaining 5% are mostly special situations where it’s difficult to restore electricity, such as the home being so damaged it can’t receive power or the area still being flooded. Those outages don’t include customers whose homes or businesses were destroyed.

Another major electricity provider in the hard-hit coastal region, Lee County Electric Cooperative, said Monday that it expects to hit the 95% mark by the end of Saturday. That figure doesn’t include barrier islands such as Sanibel that are in its service area.

Power restoration is always a key challenge after major hurricanes, when high winds and flying debris can topple power lines or major parts of the electricity infrastructure.

Silagy said the utility has invested $4 billion over the last 10 years to harden its infrastructure by doing things such as burying more power lines, noting that 40% of its distribution system is now underground. The utility is also using more technology such as drones that can stay aloft for hours to get a better picture of damage to the system, and sensors at substations that can alert them to flooding so they can shut off parts of the system before the water arrives.

Silagy said he saw during Ian where those investments paid off. Concrete utility poles remained standing at Fort Myers Beach, where many homes and businesses were wiped away. The company also didn’t lose a single transmission structure in the 8,000 miles (12,875 kilometers) it covers in Florida.

Elsewhere, the hurricane’s remnants, now a nor’easter, weren’t done with the U.S. Heavy rain fell Tuesday from Philadelphia to Boston, though not enough to cause flooding. The storm’s onshore winds are causing some minor ocean flooding at high tide from the North Carolina Outer Banks to Long Island, New York.

“If people had not heeded warnings, I think it could have been a lot worse,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said Tuesday as he reviewed how his state dealt with the storm.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden plan to visit Florida on Wednesday. The president was in Puerto Rico on Monday, promising to “rebuild it all” after Hurricane Fiona knocked out all power to the island two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, in Florida neighborhoods still without power, many residents have been sharing generators to keep things such as refrigerators cool and using outdoor grills to cook.

In Bonita Springs, Paula Arbuckle was sitting outside her one-story home while the sound of the generator under her carport roared. She bought a generator after Hurricane Irma slammed into this area in 2018 and left her neighborhood without power. She hasn’t used it since then, but after Ian knocked out the lights, she’s been sharing it with her next-door neighbor. Arbuckle said it’s hard being without power.

“But I’m not the only one,” she said. Gesturing to her neighbor’s house she said: “I have a generator. They have a little baby over there. So we’re sharing the generator between the two homes.”