Post-Irma Florida: Scenes of wreckage mix with signs of hope

LOWER MATECUMBE KEY, Fla. — Parts of Florida inched back toward normalcy on Wednesday with workers restoring power, clearing roads and replenishing gas supplies, even as scenes of destruction emerged from southernmost islands and new dangers emerged for residents without electricity.

Residents drifted back from shelters and out-of-state hotels to see Hurricane Irma’s scattershot destruction. Positive signs included some curfews being lifted, flights resuming and grocery stores reopening. But flooded streets remained, and the count of damaged and totalled homes ticked upward.

“Everything’s gone,” said Jen Gilreath, a 33-year-old bartender whose Jacksonville home filled with knee-high floodwaters.

While people around the state waited for power to be restored, a new hazard developed: carbon monoxide poisoning from generators. Authorities said that five people died and more than a dozen were treated for breathing fumes from the temporary power sources in separate instances in the Orlando, Miami and Daytona Beach areas.

One Miami-area apartment building was evacuated after authorities determined a lack of power made it unsafe for elderly tenants, while officers arrived at another retirement community to help people stranded on upper floors without access to working elevators. Elsewhere, a South Florida townhouse that weathered the storm was gutted by fire when power was restored, causing the stove to ignite items left on the cooktop.

As crews laboured to repair the lone highway connecting the Keys, residents of some of the islands closest to Florida’s mainland returned to get their first look at the devastation two days after Irma roared in with 130 mph (209 kph) winds.

Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Brock Long said preliminary estimates suggested that 25 per cent of the homes in the Keys were destroyed and 65 per cent sustained major damage.

“Basically, every house in the Keys was impacted,” he said.

The number of deaths blamed on Irma in Florida climbed to 13 with the carbon monoxide deaths, in addition to four in South Carolina and two in Georgia. At least 37 people were killed in the Caribbean.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do, but everybody’s going to come together,” Florida Gov. Rick Scott said. “We’re going to get this state rebuilt.”

Glimpses of Irma’s economic toll were emerging, with Florida saying 31 state agencies had already amassed nearly $250 million in preparation and recovery expenses. In the meantime, officials warily eyed storm damage to its citrus crops, an issue Sens. Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio planned to address at a joint news conference Wednesday morning with growers.

The number of people without electricity in the steamy late-summer heat dropped to 9.5 million — just under half of Florida’s population. Utility officials warned it could take 10 days or more for power to be fully restored. About 110,000 people remained in shelters across the state.

In hard-hit Naples, on Florida’s southwest coast, more than 300 people stood outside a Publix grocery store Tuesday, waiting for it to open.

At the front of the line after a more than two-hour wait, Phill Chirchirillo, 57, said days without electricity and other basics were beginning to wear on people.

“At first it’s like, ‘We’re safe, thank God.’ Now they’re testy,” he said. “The order of the day is to keep people calm.”

While nearly all of Florida was engulfed by the 400-mile-wide (645-kilometre) storm, the Keys — home to about 70,000 people — appeared to be the hardest hit. Drinking water and power were cut off, all three of the islands’ hospitals were closed, and the supply of gasoline was extremely limited.

Search-and-rescue teams made their way into the more distant reaches of the Keys, and an aircraft carrier was positioned off Key West to help. Officials said it was not known how many people ignored evacuation orders and stayed behind in the Keys.

Crews also worked to repair two washed-out, 300-foot (90-meter) sections of U.S. 1, the highway that runs through the Keys, and check the safety of the 42 bridges linking the islands.

In Islamorada, a trailer park was devastated, the homes ripped apart as if by a giant claw. A sewage-like stench hung over the place.

Debris was scattered everywhere, including refrigerators, washers and dryers, a 25-foot (8-meter) fishing boat and a Jacuzzi. Homes were torn open to give a glimpse of their contents, including a bedroom with a small Christmas tree decorated with starfish.

One man and his family came to check on a weekend home and found it destroyed. The sight was too much to bear. The man told his family to get back in the car, and they drove off toward Miami.

The Lower Keys — including the chain’s most distant and most populous island, Key West, with 27,000 people — were still off-limits, with a roadblock in place where the highway was washed out.

Although the Keys are studded with mansions and beachfront resorts, about 13 per cent of the people live in poverty and could face big obstacles as the cleanup begins.

“People who bag your groceries when you’re on vacation — the bus drivers, hotel cleaners, cooks and dishwashers — they’re already living beyond paycheque to paycheque,” said Stephanie Kaple, who runs an organization that helps the homeless in the Keys.

On the mainland, one of the evacuees taken from the Coral Gables apartment building that lacked power was a 97-year-old woman who is immobile and has heart problems.

Five firefighters went up the dark emergency stairwell, strapped Cuban-born Ofelia Carrillo to a special evacuation chair and carried her down. Her daughter Madeleine Alvarez said they ultimately heeded firefighters’ isntructions, despite doctors warning of her mother’s fragile state.

“This is the most stressful situation I’ve lived in my life,” Alvarez said.

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Kay reported from Miami. Associated Press writers Terry Spencer in Palm Beach County; Gary Fineout and Joe Reedy in Tallahassee; Jay Reeves in Immokalee; Terrance Harris in Orlando; Claire Galofaro in Jacksonville; and Freida Frisaro, Curt Anderson and David Fischer in Miami contributed to this report.

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Jason Dearen And Jennifer Kay, The Associated Press