many people could still be missing. of course, that is not good news for loved ones who cannot reach their family members. they don t know if they re trapped or alive or dead. so the task force and the search teams, john, will continue here 24/7 for as long as it takes, they say, until their mission is complete. john? work goes on. randi kaye, thank you very much for that report. more now on the broader sweep of the story in what emergency teams across the area have been finding today. carlos suarez has that. reporter: unrecognizable in parts, still underwater in others. hurricane ian s destruction and path so vast, search and rescue efforts continue days after the storm tore through florida. we can t get over the bridge. residents in this area hit by river flooding are stuck. air boats are now key to getting supplies in and people out. you see the air boats taking people into town. it s been going for a while now. the death toll across the
electricity. most in lee county. some customers might not have power for months. governor ron desantis says 2,000 people have been rescued. state officials are trying to determine how many people are still unaccounted for. the window for finding survivors is starting to close. cnn s carlos suarez has more. reporter: unrecognizable in parts. still underwater in others. hurricane ian s destruction and path so vast search and rescue efforts continue days after the storm tore through florida. we kent get over the bridge. reporter: residents in desoto county are stopped. air boats are key to getting supplies in and people out. these air boats are going out taking people into town and it s been going for a while now. reporter: the death toll across the state climbing rapidly. a lot of sick people running out of medications. a lot of people running out of water and until we can get everything up and going, we re trying to get them out. reporter: hundreds of sanibel
there was a chance lee county could get up to 7 feet of storm surge and that chance meets the count y county s emergency plan threshold to trigger an evacuation notice. one county official saying mandatory or not, residents had enough general information to know they should have left a full 72 hours before the storm. but as cnn s carlos suarez reports, residents are pushing back saying they are used to more time to evacuate after an order is officially given. reporter: unrecognizable in parts, still under water in others, hurricane ian s destruction and path so vast, search and rescue efforts continue days after the storm tore through florida. we can t get over the bridge. reporter: residents in de soto county hit by river flooding. air boats key to getting supplies in and people out. air boats going out, taking people into town, and it has been going for a while now. reporter: the death toll across the state climbing
arcadia, florida, where we find nadia romero who has been following an effort there to bring in supplies to that community, an area that, as we ve seen throughout the last couple of days, has been cut off because roads were flooded and they looked more like rivers than actual highways. how are people there holding up today? reporter: boris, that s two parts of the storm. you have that damage that we just saw with leyla in naples and in fort myers where you are, but then in other parts of southwest florida you have all of this water that doesn t have anywhere to go and that s blocking people, trapping them in their neighborhoods and blocking their access to resources. here this is highway 70. it should be open. you should be able to take this highway all the way down over two bridges to make your way to palm beach or curve around and go to fort myers. now you can t. you can see air boats like that one that s out in the water.
just so people can keep going. the storm hit wednesday. this could be day 3 without electricity. so they are running out of water and ways to feed their families. and there is quite a crowd that s gathered here on highway 70 because they know this is where the dropoff site has been for the county, for the u.s. army, salvation army. all these folks are waiting for another round of donations to make their way here. we re told they could be coming any minute now. and they will drop them off right here on the highway. you can see another one of those air boats headed out now. and it s loud but really music to your ears if you re here because you know they are on their way to either pick up someone in supply orpik up police people need. despite everything that s going