Storm Ian hit South Carolina on Friday, September 30, after devastating part of Florida, where it claimed dozens of lives.
The authorities of this state in the south-east of the United States announced, on Friday evening, a new death toll of twenty-three, most of them by drowning and in their great majority of the elderly. Some American media evoke an even heavier human toll, the CNN television channel evoking forty-five deaths.
Ian then tracked into South Carolina, where it made landfall in the early afternoon near Georgetown as a Category 1 hurricane, accompanied by winds of up to 140 km/h, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Although it then weakened into a post-tropical storm (winds up to 110 km/h), its downpours caused sudden flooding in this state and in North Carolina, where some areas could receive up to at 20 cm of precipitation.
Post-Tropical Cyclone #Ian Advisory 33A: Ian Bringing Heavy Rain, Flash Flooding, and High Winds to the Carolinas. https://t.co/tW4KeFW0gB
President Joe Biden has urged residents to heed calls for caution from local authorities. In South Carolina, they had notably urged the population not to drive on the roads invaded by water. “It’s a dangerous storm that will bring high winds and lots of water, but the most dangerous thing will be human error. Be smart, make good decisions, check in on loved ones, and stay safe”, tweeted Governor Henry McMaster.
Still more than 1.4 million homes without electricity in Florida
Ian should “continue to weaken overnight and dissipate over western North Carolina or Virginia late tomorrow”Saturday, according to the Hurricane Center.
Some 575,000 homes and businesses were already without power Friday evening in South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, according to the specialized site PowerOutage. In Florida, as of Friday evening, more than 1.4 million customers remained without power two days after Ian’s passage, according to PowerOutage.
In addition to the heavy human toll, the material damage is “historical”, the level reached by the rising waters having been unprecedented, according to the Republican Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis. Streets and homes were flooded and boats moored in marinas were tossed onto land by the storm.
On Friday, in Kissimmee, not far from Orlando, the authorities crossed the flooded areas in boats to rescue residents trapped in their homes. In this state, “we are only just beginning to see the extent of the destruction”, “likely to rank among the worst” in the history of the United States, said Joe Biden during a speech. “It will take months, years to rebuild”he lamented.
In the coastal town of Fort Myers, referred to as“epicenter” by Ron DeSantis, a handful of restaurants and bars had reopened and dozens of people were seated on terraces, offering residents a semblance of normalcy between broken trees and shattered facades.
At the same time, the search continued to find seventeen passengers from a migrant boat which capsized on Wednesday near the Keys archipelago.
Increased rainfall due to climate change
According to initial estimates, the passage of Hurricane Ian could cost insurers tens of billions of dollars and will weigh on American growth, in particular due to flight cancellations and damage to agricultural production.
According to a first rapid study by American scientists made public on Friday, the rains linked to Hurricane Ian have increased by at least 10% due to climate change. “Climate change didn’t cause the hurricane, but it made it wetter,” explained Michael Wehner, of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, depending on the US Federal Department of Energy, one of the scientists who participated in this study.
Before Florida, Ian had hit Cuba, causing three deaths and extensive damage and leaving many homes without power there too.