where the neighbors had been under mandatory evacuation orders and were just starting to get back to see how bad it had been. We went into a retirement community called Port Charlotte Village - theresa madden michael barbaroĪnd as you got further into Port Charlotte, who did you talk to, and what did they tell you? patricia mazzei There’s not a single traffic light that is working. As soon as you get off the highway, you just see power lines down, trees down, tin roofs down. michael barbaroĪnd this area took a beating. And mostly what was striking was that the water levels on both sides of the highways sort of looked like the highway was between canals. We drove in from the North, from Tampa, on Interstate 75. Well, just describe your journey into Port Charlotte. Port Charlotte is one of several communities that dots Charlotte Harbor, which is an estuary from the Gulf of Mexico, which is where Hurricane Ian’s eye came in through the mainland on Wednesday. michael barbaroĪnd where is Port Charlotte in the grand scheme of this hurricane? patricia mazzei I am in the parking lot of a gas station that has no gas, wearing my tall wader boots. Where are we reaching you right now? patricia mazzei So Patty, I am reaching you around noon on Thursday, and I wonder if you can tell me exactly where you are. Today, Sabrina Tavernise and I spoke with our colleagues across Florida - Patty Mazzei, Richard Fausset, Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, and Hilary Swift - about what the storm’s aftermath looks like up close. The storm, a Category 4 hurricane, washed away roads, bridges, cars, boats, and homes, causing damage so extensive that according to the state’s Governor Ron DeSantis, it may take years to rebuild. And it hit an area where there’s a lot of people and a lot of those low-lying areas. We’ve never seen storm surge of this magnitude. I think we’ve never seen a flood event like this. On Thursday, as the sun came up over Florida, a fuller picture began to emerge of the destruction that Hurricane Ian has inflicted on the state and its residents. And this is just off initial assessments. The impacts of this storm are historic, and the damage that was done has been historic. This is “The Daily.” archived recording (ron desantis) You can be ready for power, you can be ready for food, you can prepare for everything else, but you can’t stop that water from rising.įrom “The New York Times,” I’m Michael Barbaro. I just gambled, and this time I finally got burned. I’ve just been slowly, systematically getting all my stuff ready. The last two weeks, I’ve had both generators tuned up. If I’d waited 30 more minutes, it had been too long. tim rushingĬars with water halfway up ‘em. Man, look at - this is like driving in a frickin’ river. I mean, the whole neighborhood is underwater. tim rushingĪt that point, I just wanted to get out of belly-deep water that was rapidly rising. Look at the neighborhood, something I never really envisioned myself. It’s just like someone turned on the water faucet and filling up a bathtub.Īnd the cats are pissed like, what’s going on, Dad? I told you we should have left this morning. It’s waist deep in there - gas cans, leaf blowers, coolers. And I’m like, oh, boy, I’m getting ready to pay for my complacency here. 15 minutes later, it’s starting to creep up the driveway.
I go about my business, messing around, watching TV. Then I look, and it’s got a little current to it. And then all of the sudden, the road’s wet. Isn’t that something? It’s an urban legend, the storm surge.
And I’m like, oh, it’s a big storm surge. I got flooded out of my house earlier this afternoon. It looks like it’s 5:52 PM, Naples, Florida. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email with any questions. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. This transcript was created using speech recognition software. Transcript Florida After Hurricane Ian Times reporters on the ground take stock of one of the deadliest storms ever to hit the state.
0 kommentar(er)
