World

Hurricane Ian: Ten dead in Charlotte County

September 30, 2022 4:00 pm

[Photo Credit: BBC News]

A local official in Charlotte County, one of the areas in Florida hit hardest by Hurricane Ian, has told the BBC that 10 deaths have been confirmed in the county since the storm struck.

Joseph Tiseo, a county commissioner, said it was not yet clear how many of those people died as a direct result of the hurricane.

“We had a bunch of calls coming in when the storm was approaching, but we had to shut down 911 operations because we couldn’t put our first responders on the roads during a hurricane event,” he said.

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“We don’t know how many died of other causes.”

Emergency responders in the county are still following up on the calls they received.

Commissioner Tiseo said the destruction in Charlotte County, north of Fort Myers, was mostly caused by intense winds and not storm surges like in areas further south.

“We had a tremendous wind event that lasted for 12 hours straight from approximately noon until midnight,” he told the BBC. “It was brutal.”