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After Hurricane Michael devastated the Florida Panhandle in a northerly direction, state officials were left with the gruesome task of determining the number of deaths from the storm – an issue that may take some time.
In Bay County, Florida, where Michael landed last week in the form of a powerful Category 4 storm, the sheriff announced Tuesday that 12 hurricane-related deaths had been confirmed in the region. This brings the total number of storm-related deaths to at least 28 in four states, with other deaths in Florida being investigated and officials still exploring some of the most devastated areas .
Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford said the record, although tragic, remains below what many expected, due to the devastation that the hurricane left behind. Some had anticipated a higher death toll in Mexico Beach, Florida, because nearly 300 people had told the authorities that they were not planning to evacuate this small seaside town, wiped out by the strong Michael storm and the winds of 155 km / h as it lands.
Ford said in an interview that the death toll could increase in Bay County, which includes Panama City.
"But based on what we see on the ground, I do not expect a rise, we do not expect a dramatic rise," Ford said. "It's nothing short of a miracle. We expected a large number of deaths. "
[“It’s all gone.” Tiny Florida beach town nearly swept away by Hurricane Michael]
Ford said the medical examiner determined that all 12 deaths were related to the storm. Although Ford does not know the number of deaths by location, he says that at least two people have been killed in Mexico Beach. Ford also said he suspected that many people in Mexico Beach who planned to cross the storm there "fled at the last minute".
"It made me think of waking up. . . On Wednesday at 4 am, we found that the situation continued to intensify and that we were in the line of fire and that the uncertainty was narrowing, "he said.
We did not know how many people were still missing on Tuesday. Ford said he did not know exactly how many people would still be missing in Bay County, where the authorities are still struggling with their communication systems in the wake of the storm; several could not be reached on Tuesday because the cell phone service was limited. CrowdSource Rescue, a Texas-based organization that collects information about missing persons and passes it on to first responders and volunteers in the field, said more than 700 people are reported missing on Tuesday afternoon.
Florida officials did not immediately report the number of missing persons throughout the state, although they found that a large number of people are missing in disasters, particularly when mobile and electricity services are scarce. Governor Rick Scott's office (right) said more than 138,000 people were still unpowered on Tuesday afternoon, many of them in the Gulf Coast counties heading for backcountry along the storm track.
[Telecommunications, electrical power still an issue in the Florida Panhandle]
"One thing that complicates the problem of missing persons is largely the inability to communicate with each other and with the outside world," Ford said.
He was released Monday night and had received an SMS from a law enforcement officer from another county unable to reach an elderly uncle from Bay County. "I was able to go through and check and he was fine," Ford said. "He just did not have the ability to communicate, he was fine."
Parts of Florida remained broken. Seven school districts were "closed until further notice," Scott's office said Tuesday. In a statement, Scott also called on telecommunications companies to clearly explain how they would help restore the service and his office strongly criticized the persistent breakdowns affecting the Floridians.
"Because of these breakdowns, families are having trouble communicating with their loved ones, first responders have had trouble communicating and people are struggling to get their prescriptions because of the inability to connect to a family. network, "said his office.
The toll of the victims of the storm is still unknown almost a week after the storm. Authorities in Virginia reported six deaths in that country, while authorities reported three deaths in North Carolina and two in Georgia.
Even though local authorities in Florida have announced more deaths on Tuesday, state officials have confirmed only two deaths, a figure determined in part because of how storm-related deaths are reported after natural disasters .
The deaths after hurricanes are reported to the Board of Medical Examiners of the Florida Law Enforcement Department. The counties send their death accounts to the commission, which then sends them to state officials for them to publish, the official account for Florida, said Stephen Nelson, chairman of the commission.
"Our problem here is that it has taken some time to access these communities and to be able to talk to our people on the ground," said Nelson, a medical examiner in a district including Polk County, Florida. He added that in Bay County, the medical examiner's office had no electricity Monday afternoon and was dependent on a generator.
[“We’re back to frontier days.” Michael’s aftermath leaves a wrecked Florida]
Two types of deaths are attributed to a storm, said Nelson. Direct deaths include people killed when they drive into flooded areas and drown or lie inside buildings that are knocked over. Indirect deaths, which are usually more common, often occur during preparations and cleansing, especially when a person slips and falls from a roof or dies of carbon monoxide poisoning produced by a person. generator.
According to the state's emergency operations center, a 94-year-old woman was killed in Clay County. Some local officials, such as in Bay County, have reported figures that the state has not yet released. Rodney Andreasen, director of emergency management for Jackson County, Florida, said his county had been killed three times in the storm.
The Gadsden County Sheriff's Office initially reported four "storm-related deaths" last week and then stated that only one had been officially confirmed as dead from the hurricane and that the three others had been sent to the office of the medical examiner for further determination.
Law enforcement officials and first responders are still trying to determine if there are any deaths or injuries that have not been found, and Nelson warned that the number could increase throughout the state.
"As these search and recovery efforts take place, I would be surprised that our body numbers do not increase," Nelson said. It is difficult for them to enter all the affected areas, said Nelson, so "the more they are able to enter. . . the more remote areas, I would be very surprised if the death toll does not increase. "
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