Hurricane Ian's death toll rises to more than 100 in Florida

More than 100 people have died in Florida from Hurricane Ian, one of the most powerful hurricanes to make landfall in the United States. Officials are expecting the number of fatalities to increase as additional deaths are being investigated. 

At least 54 people died in Lee County alone, one of the areas that was severely devastated by the category 4 storm, Sheriff Carmine Marceno said on Monday. 

Additionally, eight other people died in Collier County, five in Volusia County, three in Sarasota County, two in Manatee county, and one in Polk, Lake, Hendry, and Hillsborough counties, reported CNN. Four others died from storm-related incidents in North Carolina. 

As of Sunday, more than 1,900 people have been rescued from southwest and central Florida, according to the office of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. 

“There’s been a great outpouring of support and I’ve seen a lot of resilience in this community of people that want to pick themselves up and they want to get their communities back on their feet,” the governor told reporters. “We’ll be here and we’ll be helping every step of the way.” 

Search and rescue efforts are still underway as many communities continue to be cut off and submerged under water after the storm’s catastrophic floods.

More than 530,000 homes and businesses remain without power as of Monday evening, according to PowerOutage.us. 

Some places, such as Fort Myers Beach and Cape Coral, might not see their electricity restored for another 30 days since their electrical infrastructure was destroyed by the storm. According to Fire Department Chief and Emergency Management Director Ryan Lamb, the infrastructure was “obliterated” and needs complete reconstruction.