Hurricane Ian: 77 killed and many unaccounted for after one of strongest, costliest storms in US history
At least 77 people have been confirmed dead after Hurricane Ian struck the US – with rescuers desperately searching for survivors among the ruins of flooded homes.
The remnants of one of the strongest and costliest hurricanes in American history is now headed north, with authorities in Florida and South Carolina left assessing the damage.
Ian has been likened to an “A-bomb” and about 10,000 people remain unaccounted for, although the authorities believe many are likely to be in shelters or without power.
According to the American Red Cross, more than 1,300 disaster workers are supporting relief efforts across five states.
Of those killed, 73 were in Florida – mostly from drowning. But the storm has also had knock-on effects, and an elderly couple lost their lives after oxygen machines stopped working because of a power outage.
A further four fatalities connected to the severe weather were reported in North Carolina – including two who died in a road crash during the storm.
Hurricane Ian’s winds and coastal surges have terrorised millions of people for most of the week – and although it has now been slightly downgraded to a cyclone, officials have warned the storm is still dangerous.
“Treacherous” conditions are still forecast throughout this weekend for large swathes of the east coast – including New York, New Jersey and Washington DC.
Lee County, Florida
Back in Florida, a massive clean-up effort is now under way, and the latest figures suggest that more than 1.1 million residents are still without power and WiFi.
Governor Ron DeSantis said SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk had agreed to provide the company’s satellite internet service Starlink to all those without connectivity trying to get help or reunite with loved ones.
Celebrities are also beginning to donate to a disaster relief fund.
American football star Tom Brady, who now plays for the Florida-based Tampa Bay Buccaneers, tweeted that he would be contributing to the Florida Disaster Fund, and urged other NFL players to do the same.
‘I want to sit in a corner and cry’
Anthony Rivera, 25, described climbing through the window of his ground-floor Fort Myers flat during the storm to carry his grandmother and girlfriend to the first floor.
As they hurried to escape the rising water, the storm surge had washed a boat right up next to his apartment.
“That’s the scariest thing in the world because I can’t stop no boat,” he said. “I’m not Superman.”
Other distraught residents waded through knee-high water, salvaging what possessions they could from their flooded homes and loading them onto rafts and canoes.
“I want to sit in the corner and cry. I don’t know what else to do,” Stevie Scuderi said after shuffling through her mostly destroyed Fort Myers home.
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Pier in S Carolina blown away by hurricane
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Dramatic before-and-after images show scale of destruction
On Friday, Ian pummelled waterfront Georgetown, north of South Carolina’s historic city of Charleston, with wind speeds of 85mph.
The storm washed away parts of four piers along the coast, including two connected to the popular tourist town of Myrtle Beach. On Saturday, more than 63,000 homes and businesses in the state were still without power.
President Joe Biden has approved an emergency declaration for the state, which authorised the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts in all its 100 counties as well as for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians – a federally recognised Indian tribe based in western North Carolina.
In Cuba, there have been protests on the streets after five days of blackouts
Meanwhile, in Cuba, residents have taken to the streets of the capital Havana in protest at ongoing blackouts since its direct hit five days ago.
It has now been reported a new weather system is heading to Mexico’s northwestern Pacific coast.
The US National Hurricane Center said Orlene had grown to hurricane strength and was heading for an expected landfall early next week with winds of 75mph.
Donald Trump is not a man in the habit of backing down.
His astonishing proposal to “own” Gaza and relocate two million Palestinians has faced unanimous opposition from America’s allies, but the president now has a plan and woe betide anyone who gets in the way. And that includes international law.
“The Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of the fighting,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Trump latest: Netanyahu backs ‘remarkable’ Gaza idea
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Netanyahu praises Trump’s ‘good idea’
Nevermind that Gaza is not Israel’s land to turn over.
“The Palestinians… would have already been settled in safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region.”
Nevermind that most countries in the region have angrily opposed this suggestion.
Aware, perhaps, that the prospect of US troops being sent to Gaza, possibly for decades, would meet opposition in Congress, Trump added “no soldiers by the US would be needed!”
Well that clears one question up. But who would be responsible for security in Gaza then?
Local police officers who are affiliated to Hamas? Private security contractors made of former American soldiers, operating under rules of engagement set by who?
While most of the world is recoiling at all this, in Israel they are leaning into it. Hard.
The defence minister, Israel Katz, has ordered the IDF to prepare plans to allow Gazans to leave by land, sea or air. This is being framed as voluntary migration, giving Gazans the freedom to leave for a better life elsewhere.
Some might. But what if most don’t. Then what?
Voluntary migration sounds nice and all, but how voluntary would it be, really?
Read more:
White House appears to row back on Gaza proposal
What you need to know about Trump’s Gaza plan
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Trump plan is ‘ethnic cleansing’
Palestinians, human rights organisations and others argue that after 15 and a half months of constant bombardment, Israel has left Gaza uninhabitable and so any departure would be down the barrel of guns that have been pointing at them for almost a year and a half.
Faced with all this, Trump, Netanyahu and their ministers continue to insist that only they know what’s best for Gazans.
Has anyone actually asked the people of Gaza?
Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning trans women athletes from competing in female sports.
The move is designed to prevent people who were biologically assigned male at birth from participating in certain sporting events, including those at school.
The order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports”, will call for “immediate enforcement” against schools and athletic associations that deny women single-sex sports and single-sex changing rooms.
It also coincides with National Girls and Women in Sports Day and it marks another notable shift in the way the federal government treats transgender people under Mr Trump.
Follow live: Donald Trump latest
Pic: Reuters
Ahead of signing the order, Mr Trump said: “From now on women’s sports will be only for women.
“We’ve gotten the woke lunacy out of our military and now we’re getting it out of women’s sports.”
He also spoke about the coming Olympics and World Cup which the US is hosting, and said he wouldn’t allow any transgender athletes to compete.
He went on: “In Los Angeles in 2028, my administration will not stand by and watch men beat and batter female athletes.
“We’re not going to let it happen.
“Just to make sure, I’m also directing our secretary of homeland security to deny any and all visa applications made by men attempting to fraudulently enter the US while identifying as women athletes to try and get into the games.”
In signing the order, surrounded by a number of women and girls, Mr Trump claimed “the war on women’s sports is over”.
Donald Trump speaking ahead of signing the order.
Pic: Reuters/Leah Millis
The order authorises the education department to penalise schools that allow transgender athletes to compete and any school found in violation could lose its federal funding.
Despite their small numbers within America, transgender people have been the target of three orders signed by Mr Trump since coming into office, Sky News’ US partner NBC News reported.
These targeted participation in the military and access to gender-affirming care.
On his very first day in office last month, Mr Trump passed one order that called on the federal government to only recognise two genders – male and female.
During his campaign, he pledged to “keep men out of women’s sports” and get rid of the “transgender insanity” but his office offered little in the way of details.
Olivia Hunt, director of federal policy at Advocates for Trans Equality, told Sky News’ Yalda Hakim that the order wasn’t just about elite athletes but would impact young children and their development too.
She said: “We’re basically taking those children and saying to them we don’t think it’s vital that you learn the same sets of skills that your peers develop [playing sports].
“We are setting you aside, putting you apart, and saying you’re different and it’s okay for you to be set aside, treated differently, and bullied by your peers.
“Children should be protected. Children should be allowed to follow their interests, follow the sports they want to participate in and not have to worry that public officials will treat their existence as a cheap round of applause.”
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Trump’s trans sport stance welcomed
This is the latest in a flurry of executive orders the Republican president has enacted in his first days and weeks in office.
Some of these have been blocked by judges, and it is not yet clear if this order will avoid such a fate.
It will likely involve how the Trump administration interprets Title IX – a civil rights law that prevents sex-based discrimination in education programmes or activities that receive federal funding.
Ahead of the signing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the order “upholds the promise of Title IX”.
Read more:
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Why China has not retaliated more in trade spat
What you need to know about Trump’s Gaza plan
‘A solution looking for a problem’
It is not clear how many trans athletes are competing in the US, but cases like Lia Thomas swimming for the University of Pennsylvania have drawn attention in the past.
Cheryl Cooky, a professor at Purdue University who studies the intersection of gender, sports, media and culture, described the order as a “solution looking for a problem”.
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Doriane Lambelet Coleman, a professor at Duke Law School, pointed out that Mr Trump could have just “read the [existing] regulation traditionally” to achieve the same goals, instead of introducing the new executive orders.
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