One of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit the United States made landfall Wednesday in Florida. The catastrophic storm flooded streets, destroying businesses and homes with many trapped inside. Nearly 2.7 million people were left without power as waters rose from the heavy rainfalls.
“To say it’s devastation would be a severe understatement, just watching people’s belongings and homes and things float by—it was a very tough scene to witness,” Dan Allers, a council member in Fort Myers Beach, told the BBC.
Florida is expected to face substantial economic losses from the hurricane, but the total cost of the damage to the state is as of yet unclear.
“We’ve never seen storm surge of this magnitude,” Florida governor Ron DeSantis said in a news conference Thursday. “The amount of water that’s been rising, and will likely continue to rise today even as the storm is passing, is basically a 500-year flooding event.”
President Joe Biden issued a disaster declaration Thursday. Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said the agency is supporting search and rescue efforts for those who didn’t evacuate ahead of the storm.
Helicopter and boat rescue efforts have been employed to reach people stranded by the floodwaters. Authorities in Florida confirmed at least one person has died in the storm in the U.S., and two people died in Cuba.
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