No Calm After Storm As Floridians Climb For Bases After Hurricane Ian | News from the United States

As we drove to Fort Myers, what hit me first was the traffic.

We were one of the thousands of cars trying to enter the worst affected area Hurricane Ian.

The queues started on the other side of the state. A row of cars, stuffed with sheets, some with tethered generators, others pulling rowboats, all returned to see what was left.

As we got closer, despair grew.

In Fort Myers, zigzag cars wind their way along palm-lined streets, lining up for a gas station with no gasoline. People waited with jerry cans, some from early in the morning.

There is destruction here: overturned concrete pillars, boats piled up on the shore, but the stars and stripes still fly, even if the flags are torn in half.

It is the logistical challenge that is most striking. Basic operations have been stopped.

A two-hour drive along the coast took six hours last night, through flooded back roads, passing abandoned cars and emergency vehicles evacuating patients from powerless hospitals.

Drivers were ignoring the road markings – even the roads themselves – in the frantic night rush to detour from a run-off-flooded highway.

The storm surges have moved north, but it’s not over for Southwest Florida residents. The rivers are swelling. Areas in dire need are being cut in new ways as the water rises.

Now the communities are taking aid in hand. We saw an old man and his dog rescued from a flood to his life in his home. Rescuers? His neighbors, who had brought a boat to find out how badly their own home had been hit. The family heard him knock on the door and shout for help.

State troop stocks clear the path for water tanks, bound for hospitals and emergency water distribution centers. While 1.5 million homes and businesses are still without electricity.

There is talk of billions of dollars in damage, of years of rebuilding houses and ports. But for now, the goal of those here is to retrieve the bare essentials.