(C) Florida Phoenix This story was originally published by Florida Phoenix and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Restoring power at Sanibel Island may require an amphibious fleet, DeSantis says [1] ['Issac Morgan', 'More From Author', '- October'] Date: 2022-10-06 Gov. Ron DeSantis is thinking about deploying military-style amphibious vehicles to deliver utility line crews to restore power in Sanibel Island, where Hurricane Ian breached the road connection to the mainland. During a news conference in Nokomis in Sarasota County, the governor said the state has already used military Chinook helicopters to deliver crews to Sanibel but that fully restoring power there will require a “massive effort.” The state took only three days to build a temporary bridge to nearby Pine Island, opening a path for utility crews and for big rig trucks to fill grocery shelves, but reaching Sanibel will be a bigger job, he said. “You’re probably going to need almost like an amphibious landing craft like the Marines use to load up like dozens of utility trucks, bring them to the shore, and let them do their thing” pending repairs to the Sanibel causeway, DeSantis said. “We want people working on the island right now — debris removal, electrical — and continue working up until the temporary repairs are done. I don’t want to do nothing for three weeks or however long it’s going to take.” Meanwhile, 89 fatalities have now been attributed to Ian, with the most in Lee County (49) according to data from Florida’s Medical Examiners Commission. In Washington, meanwhile, President Biden extended 100 percent federal funding for debris removal and emergency protective actions for an additional 30 days, on top of an initial 30 days of assistance already announced. Temporary federal housing assistance is available to residents of Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Hillsborough, Lee, Manatee, Osceola and Sarasota counties, including the cost of shelter in participating hotels in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia that provide emergency shelter to survivors, the White House said. The Ian response has been the biggest ever seen in Florida. “Because of the pre-planning on this hurricane, with 42,000 utility workers stationed in the state of Florida prior to landfall, which has never been done at that scale, we’ve been able to now restore all but 1.86 percent of the state of Florida has power,” DeSantis said to cheers from his audience at a restaurant. He added that most of Florida has power restored and water has been restored in the broader hurricane damage zone, but “there is more to be done in Lee County.” During the press event, officials touted recovery efforts by state, county, and federal agencies working on the ground. Ian swept through Southwest Florida last week, causing major flooding, debris, and those deaths. The storm made landfall as a Category 4 around Fort Myers. So far, there have been about 2,500 rescue missions launched “since the storm went through,” DeSantis said. “Particularly in some of these really hard-hit barrier islands. But also, some of the places more inland that had massive, massive rainfall and massive flooding,” he said. “It’s required a major effort.” Note: This story has been updated to include information about additional federal assistance. [END] --- [1] Url: https://floridaphoenix.com/2022/10/06/restoring-power-at-sanibel-isand-may-require-an-amphibious-fleet-desantis-says/ Published and (C) by Florida Phoenix Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/floridaphoenix/