By Tim Renaud
Hurricane Ian (click here) officially made landfall at 2:05 p.m. near Georgetown with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph. This is Ian’s second landfall in the United States. It first made landfall in Cuba before taking on Florida’s west coast, making landfall as a powerful Category 4 storm at Cayo Costa near Fort Myers.
Ian collapsed a bridge and isolated two islands in Florida. That is where two of the deaths occurred.
By Amy Simonson, Christina Maxouris, Paul P. Murphy, Rebekah Riess and Dakin Andone
Hurricane Ian has left at least two people dead on Sanibel Island (click here) and ripped away several parts of the causeway that was the island’s only access to Florida’s mainland.
On Thursday night, dozens of people remained stranded, according to Sanibel Mayor Holly Smith. At least five sections of the Sanibel Causeway – which connects the barrier islands, including Sanibel and Captiva, to the mainland – were washed away by the storm, Lee County officials said. (Lee County includes Fort Myers in addition to Sanibel and Captiva islands and Cape Coral.)
Twelve people were rescued off Sanibel Island with injuries and about 40 people were rescued without injuries, the mayor told CNN on Thursday. Sanibel City Manager Dana Souza reported the two fatalities....
