They have shut down Fort Myers Beach to residents

[malaise]

as they remove cadavers/bodies as the CNN guy just said. The official number in Florida right now is 100 in Florida, four in North Carolina.
Shit is getting real long before President Biden arrives on Wednesday

[Baitball Blogger]

1. Do you think they're going to fudge the numbers?

[Phoenix61]

4. Why would they? And no I don't. nt

[GB_RN]

10. He Fudged The COVID Numbers...

Why wouldn't he fudge these, seeing as it's just before the election? These deaths will make him look really bad, especially as they find more bodies.

[FBaggins]

15. Covid deaths weren't reported by lists of names

Hurricane deaths have historically been published along with descriptions of how they died (drowned/fire/building collapse/etc. )

When grandma died of Covid, there was no way for a family to know whether she was included in the fifty other Covid deaths in the state on that day. But how many families will have to ignore Grandma being left out of the lists before he can't get away with it?

[Phoenix61]

21. No he didn't. He refused to release the data and made it

ridiculously difficult to determine trends but the numbers were there… eventually.

[GB_RN]

35. That's Still Playing Games With The Numbers.

Call it what you will, fudging, fucking around, or whatever, DeathSentence was still gaming it to make himself look better.

[Probatim]

5. Does the Pope wear a funny hat?

[MyMission]

12. Perhaps fudge, or bury, or trickle out the numbers

I scan a number of news sources on line, don't watch TV, and have not seen much, nothing recently about the death toll. Reports of disputes and caution over announcing many deaths, reports stressing not being able to count those who evacuated, articles projecting a larger body count.

Tptb often don't want to call attention to the death toll. They love to report the financial costs.

[mountain grammy]

27. That is so true..

They quit talking about the number dead from Katrina while still in the hundreds. Over 2000 thanks to Bush and his incompetent FEMA director Michael Brown who does a radio show here in Colorado, the lying sack of shit.

Yep, all about property loss.

[AmBlue]

31. Would NOT put it past him

...based on how he was out strutting all over Tampa Bay before Ian hit (in Ft. Myers)... duhhhh.

Let's see if he rolls out his wife for the announcement of the death toll... ya think?

[Ford_Prefect]

34. Given the variety and nature of all the groups volunteering, Fire companies, police, EMS

and so forth who are locating identifying and removing bodies during the searches I don't see how they can hide the numbers in the end.

[CentralMass]

2. That is tragic. The utter destruction a loss of life is hard to fathom.

[FloridaBlues]

3. Current death toll just in lee county 52. Mayor speaking now. Over 800 rescues in beac area

Too bad they didn’t get out in time.

[calimary]

8. I'm sorry, but I can't help wondering how many of those

Last edited Mon Oct 3, 2022, 05:49 PM - Edit history (1)

simply disregarded the warnings, or were just sure it really wasn’t gonna be THAT bad.

And on the other hand, how many simply weren’t able to - for whatever reason?

But the deliberate denial is what gets me, most. I just don’t have the patience or sympathy for deniers in situations like this. Especially when the facts are there - as to the strength and power of the oncoming deluge. Thy probably don’t realize these rescuers struggle against great danger to themselves and possible tragedy for their own families to save lives, including trying to help someone who ignored the warnings.

The warnings were THERE. And they were fact-driven.
—————
Hey thanks for all these replies! Seriously, I appreciate them. Makes me think the problem is more a case of couldn’t-evacuate than wouldn’t-evacuate. But either one is a damn shame.

[Sucha NastyWoman]

14. They said on msnbc earlier that most of the dead were over 60

Perhaps they lacked the financial ability or weren’t very mobile.

[IbogaProject]

16. Those on fixed incomes couldn't afford to leave

Especially with this hitting at the end of the month before the Social Security checks hit from the 1st to the 3rd. And you're missing that nearly 40% of Americans can not handle even a $400. surprise expense. And it may even be worse at the end of a month.

[wnylib]

28. I was following the projected path

because I have relatives in the Tampa area. Tampa was the media focus, even after the path started shifting. While NOAA and other agencies were warning about southwest Florida, the media were saying how devastating a Tampa Bay hit would be, how it has been 100 years since the last time a hurricane hit Tampa, etc. They did the same thing with Irma.

So I can see how people in the SW part of Florida might think that Ian would not make a direct hit on them.

I would expect state and local officials to monitor the weather agencies (not commercial TV and radio) for the path, notify the public of changes in it, and have local assistance available for evacuation.

Both the media and government could have done better.

[FloridaBlues]

30. I have to agree many stayed in beach area but many people not near water got wiped out too

But didn’t loose our home to the Gulf of Mexico
It just devastating in SW fl from Sarasota down to Naples Gas is almost not happening.

[LymphocyteLover]

33. Most people who stayed behind either had really good housing that could withstand the storm

or couldn't afford to leave

[spanone]

6. K&R

[iemanja]

7. CNN says they've closed Lee county.

100 confirmed dead.

[Raftergirl]

9. That de won't make any sense.

Are you sure your heard correctly?

[iemanja]

11. Yes, but I somehow doubt

It’s the whole county.

[Botany]

13. DeSantis was warned about the storm having a high probability of hitting Lee County, on Sunday

and he did not issue an evacuation for Lee County until Tuesday or Wednesday.

[malaise]

19. Yep

He’s no longer holding press conferences because journalists now have serious questions. It’s going to get very ugly for him.

[ananda]

17. They don't want people taking picture or videos

It's bad there.

[malaise]

18. That was my first thought

But we both know people already have pictures.
In these times someone always has pictures.

[lpbk2713]

20. People stayed until after Emergency Services couldn't be dispatched.

Bad mistake. Some paid with their lives.

And the Ft Myers/Lee County E911 PSAP was down. Calls were rerouted to another agency.
Those dispatchers may not have been familiar with the Ft Myers Area.

[AverageOldGuy]

22. Why would people not evacuate?

Consider this: Evacuation requires:
-- Pack up your stuff
-- Get in the car
-- Fill up with gas
-- Drive somewhere out of the danger area and find a motel
-- For days and days all your meals are purchased and the motel is charging you $100 a day.

If you are on a fixed income with little or no cash reserves; if you work 2 or 3 part-time jobs; if you are "low income" (AKA: poor) -- how are you going to:
-- Pay for a tank of gas or maybe two or three?
-- Pay for food for week?
-- Pay for motel room for weeks?

[Lucinda]

26. +1

[3Hotdogs]

29. #1, "Pay for a tank of gas, or maybe two or three?"

Sub topic: If you even have a car.

And pets? I have two. I can't envision leaving them for three days.

[obamanut2012]

32. And many places won't take pets

[babylonsister]

36. That's what shelters are for here on FL's east coast.

I wonder if they were set up given that the landfall was supposed to be Tampa?

[Pacifist Patriot]

37. Thank you

I am so weary of unaffected people not understanding the myriad of factors involved in evacuation. "Just go" isn't always an option or even the best one sometimes.

[Lucinda]

23. ...

❤️ ✿❧🌿❧✿ ❤️

[Skittles]

24. ...