Category 4 Hurricane Ian left at least 76 people dead in Florida before making landfall as a Cat. 1 storm South Carolina before moving up the coast, killing 4 more in North Carolina. The Fort Myers, Florida, region was devastated by the storm’s high winds, heavy rain, and massive storm surge. Barrier islands were wiped out, and hospitals flooded, as Ian knocked out power for 2 million people.
Ian’s remnants are bringing rains to the Washington, D.C., area and beyond this week, as the storm slowly moves north. The estimated damage of $30 billion falls largely on homeowners who lack flood insurance, meaning not only are homes and lives lost, but “Ian could financially ruin thousands of families in Florida,” Mark Friedlander of the Insurance Information Institute told E&ENews. (Impacts: AP, E&E News, ABC, Axios, AP, Washington Post $, AP, Washington Post $, Bloomberg, grist, PoliticoPRO $, AP, Washington Post $, AP, NBC, AP ; Insurance: E&E News $, Washington Post $, CNN, Bloomberg ; Power Outages: The Hill, Axios, NPR, Axios, E&E News ; Aid: PoliticoPRO $, AP, The Hill, E&E News, HuffPost, PoliticoPRO $, The Hill; Beyond FL: AP, The Hill, Gizmodo, AP, YCCC, Washington Post $, Washington Post $, AP; Photos: Washington Post $; Climate Signals background: Hurricanes, Storm surge increase, Coastal flooding increase)