Sanibel Florida Sees Disaster of Biblical Proportions

The devastation in Florida may be unprecedented, and one of the worst hits was Sanibel Island. An official shared an update on how Hurricane Ian bore down on the city.
“The damage is catastrophic and it is biblical,” Dana Souza, Sanibel’s city manager, told Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie on TODAY Friday. “I’ve never seen anything like this … residents who have lived on Sanibel for many, many years, just can’t even understand the damage that we’ve experienced.”
Sanibel is home to just over 6,000 people on the west coast of Florida, just south of Fort Myers.
The causeway connecting the island to the mainland was damaged by the storm, so now the island is only reachable by boat.
“Obviously our main access to the island has been cut off,” Souza said. “There’s been five breaches to the causeway, and so that’s significant work that has to be undertaken.”
Souza indicated that officials are “still working to get our crews, both search-and rescue-crews and then our first initial cleanup crews, onto the island by boat,” adding that they have “limited equipment that’s on the island.”
He also said “a number of volunteers” have provided boats, and are helping to move people to and from the mainland.
Many people have survived the storm, but Souza said that officials are still doing welfare checks on people and continuing their search-and-rescue operations.
The official shared one story about one elderly couple that lived near the coast and had to climb to the highest point of their house to stay safe from the rising waters. A family member came to rescue them from the island.
“We know that people have been through a traumatic experience here,” he said, “And they just want to get off the island and be safe.”
As of Thursday night, at least a dozen people in Florida were confirmed to have died in the hurricane.

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