Recovery efforts proceed in Southwest Florida greater than 100 days for the reason that landfall of Hurricane Ian.
FORT MYERS, Fla. – Greater than 100 days for the reason that landfall of Major Hurricane Ian on Florida’s southwestern coast, authorities are still discovering human stays which can be believed to belong to victims who rode out the high-end Category 4 storm.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office said that they had positively identified the stays as an 82-year-old resident who rode out the storm in Fort Myers Beach and was working to discover the stays found at the positioning of a sunken sailboat as a missing boater.
Hurricane Ian made landfall at Cayo Costa in southwestern Florida on September 28, 2022, with sustained winds of 150 mph, making it the strongest to affect the region since Hurricane Charley in 2004.
Resulting from the storm’s size and unpredictability, some residents of the Sunshine State were caught off and unprepared for the numerous storm surge and damaging winds that took their toll on the Fort Myers region.
The track of Hurricane Ian.
(FOX Weather)
THESE 3 HURRICANES WERE AMONG LAST YEAR’S 18 BILLION-DOLLAR WEATHER DISASTERS
During Thursday’s news conference, Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno released recent information regarding the world’s recovery.
“Most of us have gotten back to a way of the brand new normal. For some, still missing their family members, day by day for the reason that storm has been difficult,” said Marceno.
The sheriff said his agency originally attempted a well-being check at what was left at the house of Ilonka and Robert Knes within the aftermath of the storm.
The body of Robert Knes was found shortly after Ian struck, but there have been no signs of his wife in the course of the days and weeks following the disaster.
Marceno said it wasn’t until mid-January that a debris removal crew found stays in a dense patch of mangroves, that later tested positive, through the usage of dental records, to be that of Ilonka.
A dive team situated the sunken sailboat ‘Good Girl’ within the Matanzas Pass on Friday. Missing person James ‘Denny’ Hurst was last known to have been on board the boat during Hurricane Ian
(Lee County Sheriff’s Office / FOX Weather)
Not long after the news conference, dive crews were spotted on the scene of a sunken sailboat which was the last known location of a resident identified by deputies as James ‘Denny’ Hurst.
Investigators said human stays were found in the course of the search of the boat named “Good Girl” in a waterway not removed from the Gulf of Mexico.
The person was last reported to be on the boat in the course of the monstrous storm and was considered one of the a whole bunch reported missing in the course of the aftermath, a lot of which have since been alive.
HURRICANE IAN LEFT SCARS VISIBLE FROM SPACE ALONG ITS TRAIL OF DESTRUCTION
If the stays change into Hurst, the hard-hit region of Lee County may have solved all its missing person cases, but there stays at the very least a dozen other cases elsewhere across the Florida Peninsula which can be unsolved.
Most of the cases stem from a ship that sunk near the Florida Keys that the U.S. Coast Guard believes was carrying 27 migrants from Cuba. The U.S. Border Patrol reported nine were safely rescued, and the bodies of several others were present in the aftermath of the storm.
Agencies stress they could never know the precise amount aboard the vessel when it began taking over water, however the people will remain considered missing until evidence surfaces otherwise.
Also reported missing are Omar Millet and Betsy Morales, who were last considered adrift on their 32-foot boat within the rough waters off the Keys.
The Coast Guard said it searched an area greater in size than the state of Maryland but got here up empty during its search.
“The choice to suspend a search isn’t easy and is barely made after careful consideration of all of the available facts,” a Coast Guard search and rescue mission coordinator said after the operation.
Omar Millet and Betsy Morales
(FOX Weather)
MOST OF HURRICANE IAN’S 100-PLUS VICTIMS IN FLORIDA DIED BY DROWNING, DATA SHOWS
The addition of confirmed deaths solidifies Hurricane Ian’s standing because the deadliest storm to strike Florida in at the very least 87 years.
Greater than 150 people from Cuba to Virginia were reported killed, with the overwhelming majority within the Sunshine State.
An evaluation of information from Florida’s Medical Examiners Commission showed drownings were the explanation for greater than half of the deaths, followed by delayed medical services and a bunch of other preventable causes.
“As time moves forward, the scars left by Ian will remind us how far we’ve come after we work together. We are going to construct back stronger than before, and it takes all of us,” said Marceno.
A Southwest Florida photographer goes the additional mile to revive hope by helping rescue damaged photos following Hurricane Ian. She recently reunited with a family whose photos she was able to avoid wasting. Krista Kowalczyk, photographer and owner of Impressions Photography, and Ian survivor Lori Kindell along along with her family, join FOX Weather.
