Washington, Europe Brief News – Flooding concerns have been raising high throughout South Florida as Hurricane Ian brought heavy rain to the area, coinciding with king tides.
Hurricane Ian, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the U.S., swamped southwest Florida on Wednesday. The hurricane turned the streets into rivers, knocking out power to 2 million people and threatening catastrophic damage further inland.
A coastal sheriff’s office reported that it was getting many calls from people from flooded homes. Desperate people posted to Facebook and other social sites, pleading for rescue for themselves or loved ones. Some video showed debris-covered water sloshing toward homes’ eaves.
The storm surge flooding a hospital’s lower level emergency room in Port Charlotte, while fierce winds tore part of its fourth floor roof from its intensive care unit, according to a doctor who works there.
Dozens evacuated
Water gushed down from above onto the ICU, forcing staff to evacuate the hospital’s sickest patients — some of whom were on ventilators — to other floors, said Dr. Birgit Bodine of HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital. Staff members used towels and plastic bins to try to mop up the sodden mess.
JUST IN 🚨 Horrific flooding situation in Fort Myers, Florida most houses are completely underwater pic.twitter.com/Z1Pzt5zwrZ
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) September 29, 2022
The medium-sized hospital spans four floors, but patients were forced into just two because of the damage. Bodine planned to spend the night at the hospital in case people injured from the storm arrive there needing help.
“The ambulances may be coming soon and we don’t know where to put them in the hospital at this point because we’re doubled and tripled up,” she said. “As long as our patients do OK and nobody ends up dying or having a bad outcome, that’s what matters.”
The hurricane’s center made landfall near Cayo Costa, a barrier island just west of heavily populated Fort Myers. As it approached, water drained from Tampa Bay.
Mark Pritchett stepped outside his home in Venice around the time the hurricane churned ashore from the Gulf of Mexico. He called it “terrifying.”
