Dozens of Florida residents evacuated their flooded and shattered houses by boat and plane over the weekend, as rescuers resumed their hunt for lives in the wake of Hurricane Ian, and South Carolina and North Carolina authorities began assessing their damages.
On Sunday, the death toll from Hurricane Ian surpassed 80, as residents in Florida and the Carolinas faced a recovery that was projected to cost tens of billions of dollars and as some officials faced criticism for their reaction to the disaster.
As they struggle to reconstruct their lives, dozens of people have been left with little choice but to appeal to the public for assistance via the crowdfunding portal GoFundMe.
The crowdsourcing platform presented with DailyMail.com the most heartbreaking verified Hurricane Ian fundraising campaigns.
Amanda Trompeta and Dimitrios Frantzis, who are to wed in only two weeks, are included.
According to their sister’s website, the couple lost almost everything. During the storm, the bridal gown of Trompeta was severely destroyed.
Trompeta’s sister wrote that three feet of water swamped the couple’s home, destroying their possessions.
Frantzis told the Orlando Sentinel, “We wanted to escape, but the pressure made it impossible to even open the garage door.”
The most important thing is that we’re alive and our animals are healthy, he added.
Realizing how deep we are in the hole, we are essentially beginning anew. However, we are taking it day by day.’
As of this writing, the couple has raised more than $14,000.
Pictured on their GoFundMe page are Amanda Trompeta and Dimitrios Frantzis.
The couple said on their Facebook page that they have lost practically everything after being trapped in their Orlando home by three feet of water on Thursday.
According to the couple’s crowdfunding page, the floor of their residence was saturated and dirty after the flood.
The death toll was anticipated to rise as floodwaters receded and search teams expanded into previously inaccessible places. Hundreds of people have been rescued as emergency personnel combed through flooded or completely submerged homes and businesses.
At least 85 storm-related fatalities have been recorded since Hurricane Ian made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 150 miles per hour.
During Hurricane, strong winds Ian witnessed a wall collapse in the Fort Myers home of the Kuttner family.
Hurricane Ian wrecked the home of the Kuttner family, who departed Rhode Island in 2021 to begin a new life in paradise in Fort Myers.
Their GoFundMe page states, “The gusts were so severe that they blew down the apartment’s exterior wall, allowing the master bedroom’s furnishings to be washed outside in the storm.”
At the time of writing, nearly $6,000 has been raised.
All but four of the fatalities occurred in Florida, with 42 deaths recorded by the sheriff’s office in coastal Lee County, which bore the brunt of the hurricane when it made landfall, and 39 deaths reported by officials in four nearby counties.
The hurricane weakened Saturday as it swept across the mid-Atlantic, but not before it destroyed bridges and piers, hurled enormous boats into buildings ashore, and tore off the roofs of hundreds of thousands of homes, leaving them without power.
A GoFundMe campaign for this Key West home that was damaged by fire has raised more than $20,000.
A GoFundMe page for Key West, Florida, police dispatcher Nick Smith raised over $20,000. Thursday’s hurricane caused his home to be destroyed by fire.
The page states, “The building has been red-tagged and its floor and roof have collapsed.” Everything has been ruined and gone.
The majority of confirmed deaths in Florida were due to drowning in storm seas, although others were caused by Ian’s terrible aftermath. Authorities report that an elderly couple died after the electricity went off and their oxygen devices cut off.
As of Saturday, more than 1,000 people have been evacuated from flooded areas around the southwestern coast of Florida, the chief of the National Guard, a four-star general, told The Associated Press while en route to Florida.
The White House confirmed in the evening that Vice President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will fly to Florida on Wednesday. No other information regarding Biden’s visit was immediately provided.
Officials in Lee County, which contains Fort Myers and Cape Coral and is located on the Gulf Coast, have been questioned regarding the timeliness with which they ordered evacuations.
The Estero Park Fralich family was among those who lost everything. Their residence was destroyed by Hurricane Ian. Their GoFundMe campaign has raised almost $3,000 as of writing.
The modest target of $5,000 will be utilized to replace personal things that may not be covered by flood insurance.
According to the Fralich family’s website, the hurricane caused the destruction of their home.
This depicts the surging floodwaters outside the Fralich residence.
The page identifies the Fralich family as “one of the most extraordinary families.”
Cecil Pendergrass, chairman of the county’s board of commissioners, stated on Sunday that evacuation orders were issued after the county was predicted to be in the cone, or the likely path of the hurricane’s center. Even yet, some individuals elected to ride out the storm, according to Pendergrass.
He added at a press conference, “I accept their choices.” But I’m sure many of them now regret their decision.
Occasionally, river floods constituted a formidable obstacle to rescue and supply delivery attempts. The Myakka River flooded a portion of Interstate 75, resulting in a lengthy shutdown of the freeway.
Captain Tyler Martin, an enthusiastic sailor who operates charter voyages off of Key West, witnessed the destruction of his vessel along with other vessels. Additionally, Martin lived on his boat.
His GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $20,000 as of the time of this writing.
Captain Tyler Martin, an ardent sailor who operates charter voyages off of Key West, witnessed the destruction of his yacht, along with other vessels.
The website for Martin, who is characterized as “very generous” and “caring,” has donated more than $20,000 to date.
The crucial corridor connects Tampa to the north with the hard-hit southwest Florida region, which encompasses Port Charlotte and Fort Myers. Later on Saturday, state officials reported that the water levels had fallen sufficiently to allow the reopening of I-75.
Meteorologist of the National Weather Service in Tampa, Florida, Tyler Fleming, stated that the rising water levels in the southwestern Florida rivers have crested or are close to cresting and won’t drop considerably for several days.
Pawleys Island, South Carolina, a beach community approximately 75 miles (115 kilometers) north of Charleston, was among the hardest-hit areas. Saturday, power was still out for at least half of the island.
These photographs submitted by an anonymous family reveal the need for backyard maintenance.
The family also uploaded pictures of their street after Hurricane Ian transformed it into a river.
It was showed that trees had fallen on the family’s house, causing leaks inside.
Eddie Wilder, who has visited Pawleys Island for over six decades, described the hurricane on Friday as “crazy.” According to him, waves as high as 25 feet (7.6 meters) destroyed the local pier, an important landmark.
“We watched it hit the pier and saw it vanish,” said Wilder, whose home perched 30 feet (9 meters) above the water remained dry on the inside. We observed its disintegration while it floated by with an American flag.
At least four piers along the coast of South Carolina were demolished by strong winds and rain, including the Pawleys pier. In the meantime, the intracoastal waterway was littered with boathouses ripped from their pilings.
The hurricane in North Carolina took four lives and primarily brought down trees and electrical lines, leaving over 280,000 people in the state without electricity on Saturday morning, according to officials. Several hours later, while technicians tried to restore electricity, the number of power outages decreased significantly.
Two of the deaths in North Carolina were caused by storm-related vehicle accidents, while one man drowned when his truck rolled into a marsh and another died from carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a generator in a garage.