After Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida early on Thursday morning and left 2.5 million people without electricity, US President Joe Biden has declared the state a “major disaster.”
Federal aid is now available to nine counties on Florida’s Gulf Coast according to the president’s proclamation. Among other things, the funds may go toward temporary housing assistance, house repairs, and low-cost loans to help pay for uninsured items.
CoreLogic, a company that provides real estate consulting services, estimates that the cost of repairing and rebuilding properties damaged by the storm might reach $260 billion.
The White House highlighted in a statement on the major disaster declaration that the grant programs made available through the federal funds may also assist people and business owners in recovering from storm-related damage.
Sheriff Carmine Marceno of Lee County, Florida, whose jurisdiction includes Fort Myers, said on Thursday morning that he has “verified” that there have been “in the hundreds” of fatalities.
With continuous gusts of 150 mph and, in some spots, an 18-foot wall of water, the powerful hurricane made a disastrous landfall on Wednesday afternoon as a Category 4 storm.
Cleaning up won’t start for a while because Florida is still largely under water.
Numerous calls from persons stranded in flooded homes have been made to fire departments and law enforcement personnel. Others are using social media to make requests for help for themselves or loved ones after deciding not to follow Governor Ron DeSantis’ and FEMA’s orders to leave their homes and weather the storm at home.
According to the GOP governor, rescue teams have so far been unable to reach those in need because of how violent the winds and flooding have been.
In addition, Biden’s major disaster designation states that “Federal aid is available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation actions statewide.”
The National Hurricane Center reported that early on Thursday, Ian developed into a tropical storm over land. Later in the day, however, Ian is forecast to redevelop into a near-hurricane over the Atlantic near the Kennedy Space Center.
South Carolina will be the location of the storm’s second American landfall.
In his major disaster declaration, Biden stated that Thomas McCool of the Government Accountability Office had been chosen to serve as the Coordinating Officer for federal operations and recovery activities in Hurricane Ian-affected areas.
‘My heart is just breaking for the people in these communities right now, because they have experienced absolutely catastrophic impacts from this,’ Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Deanne Criswell told CNN on Thursday morning.
There’s parts of this community that have just been devastated.’ he added.
