Hurricane Ian live updates Thursday: News from around the state, Palm Beach County forecast

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Tropical Storm Ian finished its destructive trek across Florida Thursday afternoon, leaving unfathomable damage to the Gulf Coast and more than 1 million households in the dark.

At 5 p.m. Thursday, Ian was upgraded to a hurricane once again as its winds reached 75 mph. The storm is now headed toward South Carolina.

Officials confirmed two deaths in Sarasota County, six deaths in Charlotte County, five deaths in Lee County and one in Volusia County as communities across the state began to dig out of the wreckage and debris.

In Palm Beach County, schools will reopen Friday as residents assess damage from the storm that ranges from tree branches strewn about parks in downtown West Palm Beach to homes now uninhabitable after a tornado swept through a western Delray Beach neighborhood Tuesday night.

As of Thursday morning, around 11,000 customers were without power throughout Palm Beach County.

Here's what to know:

What's open and closed Friday? Tropical Storm Ian: Schools back open Friday, see full Palm Beach County open, close list

Two minutes of terror at Kings Point: Tornado leaves many in 55+ community west of Delray homeless

Hurricane Ian updates from Wednesday: Read how the state steadied itself, bracing for the storm's landfall

Hurricane Ian pummels southwest Florida: Terrorizes Palm Beach County with at least one tornado

5 p.m. update: Ian becomes a hurricane again

In its latest update, the National Hurricane Center has categorized Ian as a hurricane again. The storm is hovering off the east coast of Florida around 240 miles south of Charleston, South Carolina.

Ian is moving at 10 mph north-northeast.

It is expected to turn out over the Atlantic Ocean, avoiding Jacksonville and coastal Georgia, before reappearing along the South Carolina coast near Charleston around 2 p.m. Friday.

The latest update shows Florida is mostly out of the path of intense rains associated with Ian, but tropical storm-force wind gusts are expected to continue throughout the state through Thursday evening.

Two more deaths confirmed, why calculating a death toll will be a slow process

The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office said it is investigating two deaths related to Hurricane Ian.

County spokeswoman Kaitlyn Perez said the information is preliminary. She did not immediately provide any more details about the two individuals.

Calculating the death toll may be a slow process, said Claudine Buzzo of Metro-Dade Firefighters Local 1403, because the search teams must go grid-by-grid, one house at a time.

“Usually the fatalities —it takes days to figure out,” she said.

Task Force 1 team members told Buzzo that pictures of the damage “don’t do it justice.”

“The text messages I’m getting are saying that it looks like total destruction,” she said. “It looks like what Homestead looked like after Hurricane Andrew.”

- Stefania Lugli of Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Coast Guard rescues Fort Myers Beach couple from boat

Bob and Charlene Johnson felt fairly confident facing Hurricane Ian on their 35-foot cabin cruiser in a bay on Fort Myers Beach.

The couple has lived on the boat since 1998 and have survived multiple hurricanes.

“This one got us,” said Bob Johnson, 62.

“It was a rough go,” said Charlene, 59. “It was a lot windier and worse than we expected it to be. The ride from the marina to the mangroves was very unexpected.”

The couple watched from the cabin as the storm surge pushed the water up over the concrete pilings, causing the floating dock to detach from the pilings and float into the bay. At that point, Bob thought, this could end badly.

Around 10 a.m., they signaled a Coast Guard helicopter, which lowered a basket.

The helicopter brought them to Hertz Arena in Estero on Thursday morning. Charlene and Bob stood outside in the sunshine. Charlene was barefoot. Her feet were still frozen. She cradled their 35-year-old ball python Tyge in a gray pillowcase.

“I wasn’t leaving him behind, he’s been with us too many years,” Charlene said.

Bob wore flip-flops and a tank top that read: Old Salt, Fort Myers Beach.

Their boat has damage but was not destroyed.

“It was a bit of a ride. Our biggest problem is we don’t have anywhere to go now," Bob said.

Disney was a 'Twilight Zone' during Ian's impacts

A Disney resort during a hurricane is basically like the Twilight Zone.

That's how Jan Tuckwood, who has a home in Lake Worth but spends much of her time in Charlotte, North Carolina, described Tuesday and Wednesday at Disney's Swan Reserve.

No valet met her at the door when she arrived. Housekeeping and other staffing were limited. Restaurants were closed or had reduced menus and boxed meals.

While Disney parks remained closed Thursday as officials assessed Ian's impact and cleared debris, hotels weren't allowing new guests.

But those who arrived earlier in the week or evacuated to Orlando from Florida's Gulf Coast stayed, making do with the help of pared down Disney Magic and cocktails.

Read More: Disney resort during Hurricane Ian was 'like the Twilight Zone,' according to guest

'We don't know what to do first:' Dispatches from Fort Myers area

In Bonita Springs, some structures had been flattened by the storm surge, including Doc's Beach House.

The walls on the restaurant caved in when the storm surge went back out, said Charlie Cibula, the owner’s son, who said his father has owned it since 1987.

Nearby, his father picked through the wreckage of the restaurant's first floor, standing in the doorway. There were no walls surrounding the door frame.

“We’ll get it back up and running,” the father said.

Doc's Beach House also suffered a propane leak, and Lee County sheriff's deputies were turning residents back, urging them to stay away and stay safe. The smell of gas wafted through the air, and was noticeable blocks away.

Jason Crosser, who owns 8-Bit Hall of Fame, a classic video game store on Bonita Beach Road Southwest near the curve, lost everything.

He and his wife, Erica, perched outside their shop on the empty windowsills, a cutout of Hulk Hogan next to them. Crosser said he knew yesterday afternoon that his shop had been lost, when a local news channel showed a photo of the building where his shop was located. In the photo, his shop was already halfway submerged, he said.

Crosster's eyes were rimmed with red, and he could barely keep from crying. He's lived here for 16 years, and pumped every dollar back into his shop that he could, he said. It was a labor of love.

"We don't know what to do first," he said. He used to be a history teacher, he added, and said he might just move on.

"I might go back to Iowa and teach."

- Kate Cimini, Naples Daily News and Fort Myers News-Press

Southwest Florida is home to many transplants.

Since 2021, more than 233,000 people have moved from outside Florida to the southwest coastal counties savaged worst by Hurricane Ian, state drivers' license data shows. This number only includes people eligible to get drivers' licenses.

Many of these new residents came from midwestern states and thus with little experience dealing with storms as powerful as Ian. About 22% come from Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota and Indiana.

FPL reports 2.5M without power across Florida

More than 2.5 million households throughout Florida are without power throughout the state.

In a Thursday news conference in Riviera Beach, FPL spokesperson Brian said 1.2 million of them are FPL customers.

Smaller utilities serve the others. The Lee County Electric Cooperative, for instance, reported that more than 92% of the 238,200 households it serves are without power.

The 20,000 workers FPL has assembled with help from 30 other states will continue to work to restore services to as many customers as possible.

Working between bands of storms, FPL was able to restore power to 500,000 customers overnight, he said.

Read more from FPL here.

'It sounded like a plane crash:' Brevard resident describes losing his roof

As the former Hurricane Ian's gusts were lashing Musa Rukab's beachside home in Melbourne, he was startled to hear a loud kaboom — and sections of his metal roof started peeling off and fluttering in the darkness.

"It sounded like a plane crash on the back of our roof all night long," Rukab said Thursday morning, standing amid twisted strips of roofing scattered across his front yard.

"Just the metal banging up and down, the whole house shuddering — the entire night — until 6:30 this morning," Rukab said.

"Terrifying," added his wife, Rula.

The couple has lived in their two-story home the past 11 years on Brookside Drive in beachside Melbourne, three housing lots away from the Indian River Lagoon.

- Rick Neale, FLORIDA TODAY

Biden says Ian could be 'deadliest hurricane in Florida's history'

President Joe Biden said Thursday that Hurricane Ian could be the deadliest hurricane in Florida’s history.

Biden said that he and Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis are working closely together to help Floridians, despite their political differences.

“The numbers are still unclear, but we’re hearing early reports of what may be substantial loss of life,” he said from Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said her heart aches for the lives that have been “forever changed” and for the communities that will “simply never be the same” because of the storm.

She said it’s a storm people would “talk about for decades.”

When asked by a reporter to describe his morning call with DeSantis, Biden shot back that the call was “very fine” and DeSantis thanked him for the federal response, such as his declaring much of Florida a major disaster area.

“This is about saving people's lives, homes and businesses,” Biden said. “I've talked to him four or five times already, and it's not a matter of my disagreements with him on other items.”

- USA Today Network-Florida reporter Douglas Soule

2 p.m. update: Ian may regain strength as a hurricane as it heads toward GA

The National Hurricane Center's 2 p.m. update warns that Ian could speed up Thursday night and bring hurricane-force winds to Georgia and South Carolina on Friday.

As of 2 p.m., the storm was 40 miles northeast of Cape Canaveral. Ian had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph.

A hurricane watch is in effect for northeast Florida and the Georgia coast.

Forecast for Palm Beach County shows windy Thursday, calmer Friday

In Palm Beach County, high winds will continue Thursday evening with westward winds around 21 mph and gusts up to 31 mph, according to the National Weather Service Miami.

On Thursday night, Palm Beach County will see a 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms before 7 p.m. Lows will reach down into the mid-60s.

On Friday, sunny conditions will return along with mild winds between 8 and 11 mph. The high will be around 86, NWS forecasts.

Search and rescue teams from VA, OH, IN, and TX arrive in Florida

Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, who is also the state’s fire marshal, said 11 Urban Search & Rescue Teams were deployed Thursday to Southwest Florida.

“As we continue to assess the damage caused by Hurricane Ian, our top priority is to save lives,” he said. “With the storm passed, we’ve deployed eleven total Urban Search and Rescue teams to Southwest Florida to begin the recovery.”

He said, coupled with National Guard teams, the state has more than 650 people tasked with life-saving missions.

Six teams are Florida-based; the others are from Virginia, Ohio, Indiana and Texas, said Patronis.

More teams are coming from even closer to home. 

A strike team from Palm Beach Fire Rescue left Thursday for Collier County to help with recovery efforts there.

One town engine with four crew members is joining six other engines from the county in Naples, while a Palm Beach ambulance will join 10 other ambulances from Palm Beach County in Fort Myers, Palm Beach Assistant Fire Chief Sean Baker said.

Read more: Former Palm Beach official tackles Hurricane Ian fallout as Naples city manager

Palm Beach County Schools reopening Friday

All district-operated campuses and offices will reopen Friday, the Palm Beach County School District announced Thursday.

Students were kept home on Wednesday and Thursday. The district reported no major damage to any of its 180 campuses.

Read more here: Palm Beach County schools to reopen Friday after threat of Hurricane Ian passes

12 deaths across Florida confirmed Thursday due to Ian

Information trickled out Thursday about those who lost their lives as Ian moved through the state.

At least 13 people were reported dead in counties across the state, a number that's expected to rise.

Sheriffs in southwest Florida said 911 centers were inundated by thousands of stranded callers, some with life-threatening emergencies. More than 2.6 million Florida homes and business were without power early Thursday, USA TODAY reported.

Charlotte County Commissioner Chris Constance told CNN Thursday afternoon that there had been six confirmed fatalities in the county. Many roads in the county were impassable because of downed power lines or flooding, he said.

Four shelters had to be evacuated because of structural damage.

“It is the biggest catastrophe I have ever seen in my lifetime,” said Constance, speaking from Broward County where he traveled ahead of the storm. “This is unprecedented and I was in Punta Gorda through Hurricane Charley. While that was devastating this is so much bigger, is affecting so many more people.”

Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said on CNN that at least five deaths have been confirmed in his county.

And a 72-year-old man in Deltona died after falling into a canal while using a hose to drain his pool in the heavy rain, the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office said.

Palm Beach County government will reopen Friday

Palm Beach County is no longer under any watches or warnings related to Ian and all county operations will be open on Friday, according to a news release from the county.

All Palm Tran services will return to regular schedules on Friday. Fixed-Route, Palm Tran Connection and Go Glades are resuming regular service.

All county offices will also be open on Friday.

Palm Beach County Courts will also resume normal operation Friday.

Hangared planes damaged near Sarasota

Bob and Mary Kuziel walked through downtown Venice, about 20 miles south of Sarasota, searching for cell or internet Thursday morning.

The Venice residents weathered the storm in their condo on the ground floor of the nine-story Costa Brava condo building.

Bob Kuziel said they watched the rain come in sideways over Roberts Bay.

"We're trying to get in touch with people to let them know we are okay," Mary Kuziel said.

Instead, they found Venice Theatre devastated by Hurricane Ian. The near-Category 5 storm had ripped through the local landmark just over the north bridge to the island of Venice.

Venice Municipal Airport, about half-mile from a mobile home park, had severe damage to several hangers.

"I lost two planes," Andre Ghawi said. "They were in the hanger. The hanger doesn't exist anymore. You don't figure on something like this happening."

- Pensacola News Journal

FPL: 11,000 still without power in Palm Beach County

Just over 11,000 households in Palm Beach County were without power Thursday morning as FPL crews worked to repair damage caused by Hurricane Ian.

Statewide, at least 2.5 million homes were without electricity, most in hard hit counties in Southwest Florida. The number of outages predictably increased as the powerful storm crossed the state. For instance, nearly 61% of FPL customers in the Daytona Beach area lost power as Ian, now a tropical storm, moved through Volusia County early Thursday.

FPL officials urged people to be patient. Power was restored to 500,000 customers overnight. Some 20,000 electrical workers, including personnel from 30 other states, were working around the clock to restore power, they said.

Still, officials warned, power won't be restored quickly for some customers in devastated areas on the Gulf Coast.

“The company anticipates some customers will face prolonged outages because portions of the electric system in Southwest Florida will need to be rebuilt rather than repaired,” the company said in a statement.

The 11,280 homes in Palm Beach County affected were among 19,280 in South Florida that were without power on Thursday. That is about the same number of people that were without electricity in Miami-Dade County alone on Wednesday.

Watch effects from Ian roll through Delray Beach

Delray Beach Fire Rescue posted a time lapse Thursday morning that shows large waves pounding the sand.

The time lapse, which captured conditions from 6 a.m. through 7 p.m. Wednesday, shows lightning and what fire rescue called "interesting cloud movement."

The beach is open Thursday, but lifeguards are flying yellow flags in anticipation of rip currents.

See the time lapse here: 

'Everything else is underwater:' Scenes from flooded town near Sarasota

Elizabeth Hayes, 35, watched the entirety of Hurricane Ian pass over her North Port home through a peephole in her shutters, but the longtime resident was not prepared for the devastating flooding that would inundate the community.

“We’ve seen it flood, we’ve boated in and out before, but this is devastating,” Hayes said. “It’s up to my ankles, but it’s still rising. This area takes rain from the center of the state, so it’s going to still keep on flooding.”

Hayes, 35, just across the Myakkahatchee Creek about 35 miles southeast of Sarasota. She hunkered down in her home with her husband, three daughters, and three of his relatives.

"We lost power 2 nights ago. Everything was fine, but we started to realize the water levels had started rising," she said. “Our sheds, you can only see the roof, everything else is under water. Right now we are getting everything we can out.”

Hayes has lived in the flood-prone community for nearly 10 years, but up until last night she has never seen floodwaters inundate her home. This morning, she called family members and asked them to come pick her up in their Jon boat.

“It didn’t come close to our house last year, so we figured this would be similar but it was not, at all,” Hayes said. “We’ve seen a lot, but this is by far the worst we’ve ever experienced.”

 - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

11a.m. Tropical Storm Ian updates: Palm Beach County continues to see high winds

An 11 a.m. update from the National Hurricane Center showed Ian was 25 miles north- northeast of Cape Canaveral with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph.

The storm continues to move north-northeast at 9 mph as it threatens South Carolina — the NHC issued a hurricane warning for the state's entire coast.

Meanwhile, the tropical storm warnings for Florida's Gulf Coast and Lake Okeechobee were canceled.

Palm Beach County can expect high wind gusts until Thursday afternoon, NWS Miami reports.

What's open, what's closed in Palm Beach County Friday?

Public schools and many college campuses will reopen Friday along with municipal governments.

Keep up with the ever-changing list of openings and closures here. 

St. Pete, once predicted to be point of Ian's landfall, mostly spared

After thousands of people evacuated St. Petersburg earlier this week preparing for life-threatening storm surge, residents awoke Thursday to minimal damage.

Police directed traffic at intersections with broken traffic lights. Some trees had fallen, blocking roadways and taking down power lines. In Coquina Key, an island community south of downtown, a Norfolk Island pine had snapped in half, its branches scattered in a yard.

Nearby, Dale Fredrick used a chainsaw to cut branches of another downed tree blocking a roadway.

“It won’t take long,” Fredrick, 58, said. “Just little by little.”

One of the city’s lowest lying neighborhoods, Shore Acres, escaped flooding that poured into homes two years ago during Tropical Storm Eta.

Across Pinellas County, which also includes Clearwater and a swath of smaller cities, thousands were still without power.

Duke Energy reported 173,000 outages Thursday morning.

- Pensacola News Journal

DeSantis: People were saved off their rooftops

DeSantis said people were saved off their rooftops after storm surge flooding from Hurricane Ian washed over barrier islands and drove deep inland, funneling up the Caloosahatchee and Peace Rivers in Lee and Charlotte counties.

In a press conference Thursday morning, DeSantis said the Sanibel and Pine Island causeways in Lee County were impassable, and that restoring electricity to southwest Florida will mean "rebuilding infrastructure."

"You are looking at a storm that has changed the character of a significant part of our state," DeSantis said. "This will require emergency response now and days and weeks ahead. This will require years of effort to rebuild and be able to come back."

DeSantis called Ian a "500-year flooding event" and said Coast Guard helicopters were plucking trapped residents from the roofs of homes. Communities across the state were or will be swamped by the overwhelming waters, he said.

More than 100 engineers in pairs of two will work to assess the bridges along the west coast of Florida, DeSantis said. He said resources are currently heading to Southwest Florida including two-dozen helicopters, scores of boats, 100 portable cell towers and 300 truckloads of food and water.

Rescuers will go door-to-door on barrier islands and other low-lying areas prone to flooding.

"The damage done is historic," DeSantis said. "This is just from initial assessments. We have never seen a flood event like this. We have never seen storm surge of this magnitude. There's going to be a lot of work to do."

In an interview on "Good Morning America" Thursday morning, Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said that the number of deaths from Ian could reach into the hundreds.

"So while I don't have confirmed numbers, I definitely know fatalities are in the hundreds," Marceno said. "There are thousands of people that are waiting to be rescued.

DeSantis said those reports are not confirmed. It may have been an estimate given based on the number of 911 calls that came from people saying the water was rising in their homes and were trying to get to higher ground.

"I think you'll have more clarity about that as they are able to go to those locations," DeSantis said.

8 a.m. Tropical Storm Ian update, tropical storm warning canceled 

The National Weather Service has canceled the tropical storm warning for Palm Beach County, although winds gusting to tropical storm-force are still possible today as Ian makes its way through the state.

As of the 8 a.m. advisory, Ian was a 65-mph tropical storm about 40 miles east of Orlando and 10 miles west of Cape Canaveral. It is moving northeast at 8 mph.

Hurricane center forecasters are warning that Ian is producing 'catastrophic' flooding over areas of east-central Florida with persistent torrential rains.

Winds were gusting to 45 mph at Palm Beach International Airport early Thursday with sustained wind sin the 20 to 30 mph range.

The NWS office in Miami is expected to have updated rain and wind data for Palm Beach County today.

Florida Power and Light reported Thursday morning that it has restored power to 502,100 households with 1.2 million still without power.

DeSantis: Biggest logistical effort in state history

A day after Hurricane Ian made landfall as a monster Category 4 storm, DeSantis scheduled a briefing Thursday morning with reporters at the state's Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee to discuss the latest developments in one of the nation's most powerful storms on record.

Late Wednesday, DeSantis described the response and recovery to Ian as the “biggest" logistical effort in the state's history during an interview on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

DeSantis told Carlson he's “cautiously optimistic” that President Biden will grant his request that the Federal Emergency Management Agency take on 100% of the cost for debris removal and emergency protective measures for the next 60 days.

- Tallahassee Democrat

Local governments restart trash collection while buildings stay shut

Boynton Beach: Boynton Beach City Hall and all municipal facilities and parks will be closed today.

The city posted a message on its Facebook page that it will re-open Friday.

Boynton Beach officials reported downed power lines and trees across the city as Ian moved through Wednesday morning.

Jupiter: Jupiter’s Town Hall, Community Center, Jupiter Community Park, Cinquez Park and Abacoa Community Park will be closed and non-essential services suspended on Thursday.

Additionally, all athletic fields and facilities located within Jupiter parks will also be closed.

Trash pick up resumes Thursday.

Lake Park: Trash pickup will resume Thursday.

Residential bulk and recycling collection and commercial cardboard pickup will be Friday.

Lake Worth Beach: City properties in Lake Worth Beach will remain shuttered Thursday, including the beach ocean complex which is closed to all foot, bicycle and vehicle traffic.

Also closed are the William Lockhart Pier, city library, municipal golf course, City Hall, City Hall Annex, 1900 2nd Ave Offices, Leisure Services Office, Parking Division Office and PBSO District 14 Headquarters.

Trash collection will proceed according to the regular pickup schedule.

North Palm Beach: Village buildings will open Thursday. Recycling pick up resumes Thursday.

Palm Beach Gardens: Trash pickup will resume Thursday.

Unincorporated Palm Beach County: Trash pickup resumes Thursday.

5 a.m. update: 1.2M statewide without power, including over 17,000 in Palm Beach County

Ian weakened to a tropical storm early Thursday but was still swirling with powerful 65 mph sustained winds.

It had remained an impressive 75-mph hurricane through the 2 a.m. advisory from the National Hurricane Center 12 hours after making landfall as a Category 4 storm near Cayo Costa, just off Fort Myers, on Florida's southwest coast.

As of 5 a.m., Ian was 40 miles southeast of Orlando and moving northeast at 8 mph. Ian is forecast to be a strong tropical storm as it leaves Florida on Thursday night and moves into the Atlantic Ocean.

A second landfall near Charleston, N.C. is forecast for Friday.

About 1.2 million households statewide served by Florida Power and Light were without electricity Thursday morning, according to the company's outage tracker. That includes 17,280 households in Palm Beach County, where FPL serves 766,020 households.

Sarasota and Lee counties have the most homes without electricity with more than 225,000 in each county in the dark.

Storm surge, which flooded the WINK CBS station on the bank of the Caloosahatchee River in Fort Myers on Thursday, overtook barrier islands, and swept chest deep into Naples, is still a concern on the southwest coast. But northeast Florida is also expected to get a surge of up to six feet Friday as Ian makes its way offshore.

Palm Beach County could still experience some gusty winds and rains Thursday as Ian moves northeast. Tropical storm force winds extend a yawning 415 miles from Ian's center.

More: Hurricane Ian: Clematis by night scrubbed, schools closed; see full open, closed list in Palm Beach County

More: Two minutes of terror at Kings Point: Tornado leaves many in 55+ community west of Delray homeless

In Ian's wake, South Florida can expect temperatures to drop into low-70s Thursday night

Palm Beach County schools remain closed Thursday as will Lake Worth Beach and that town's city hall and other city facilities.

The City of West Palm Beach city hall and library are open Thursday. Trash pickup in West Palm Beach will resume also.

In Ian's wake, a wash of dry air will reach South Florida bringing overnight temperatures into the low 70s Thursday night through the weekend.

DeSantis is scheduled to hold a press conference at 8:45 a.m. at the emergency operations center in Tallahassee.

Palm Beach County avoided major impacts from Ian, but it still felt its reach

More than 20 residents of the Kings Point neighborhood near Delray Beach were moved to the safety of the South County Civic Center after a tornado caused extensive damage to the retirement community of more than 10,000 residents. For the full story, go here.

Other areas of the county experienced fast-moving rains, heavy gusts and some minor damage.

If you have photos or videos of Hurricane Ian's destruction, please share them with us and we'll consider publishing them. Send them to breakingnews@pbpost.com

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Hurricane Ian updates: 12 dead across Florida, Friday forecast