until their mission is complete. work goes on. randi, thank you very much for that report. more on the broader sweep of the story and what emergency teams across the area found today. cnn s carla suarez has that. unrecognizable in parts. hurricane ian s destruction and path is so vast search and rescue efforts continue phase after the storm and florida. we can t get over the bridge. residents in the county hit by river flooding are stopped. airboats are now key to getting supplies in and people out. they are going out and taking people into town. it is going for a while now. the death toll across the state climbing rapidly two of the hardest hit florida counties in charlotte each adding a dozen deaths today alone. a lot of sick people are running out of medications. a lot of people are running out of water. we can get everything up and going. we are trying to get them out. hundreds of sanibel island residents cut off from the mainland have been rescued so far. no time
many communities are nowhere near close to recovery. residents lack basic resources, neighborhoods remain flooded, and rescue efforts are on the way. so far, authorities have managed to save almost 2000 people. many of them were stranded on hard-to-reach islands. they have also restored electricity to more than 2 million customers. about 150 thousand without power. reporter: unrecognizable in part still underwater, hurricane ian s destruction and paths a vast, search and rescue efforts continue days after the storm toward the florida. residence in desoto county hit by river flooding our stock. airboats are key to getting supplies in and out. of these airboats are taking people into town. it has been going for a while.
death toll from hurricane ian. autho authorities now say at least 104 people were kill ed in the catastrophic storm and now officials in one county are under fire over the timing of evacuation orders. carlos suarez has our report from the epicenter of the devastation. we re talking about fort myers, florida. 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 desoto county hit by river flooding. airboats key to getting supplies in and people out. these airboats are going out, taking people into town and it s been going for a while now. reporter: the death toll climbing rapidly. two of the hardest hit counties each adding a dozen deaths today alone. a lot of sick people running
rescue operations are racing against the clock at this point. more than 1,600 rescues have been made so far and citizens are doing what they can, offering their own boats to help as people band together in the face of tragedy. officials in the hardest hit county under intense scrutiny over the timing of their evacuation order. we ll learn more about that. first i want to check in with nadia. there are still people, as i understand it, trapped in the floodwaters in that area. what more have you heard? reporter: area, cow hear the airboats behind me. that s a sign of progress. people are being transported and goods are coming and going. people are getting frustrated. it s day four without food or water. i want you to hear from tania
collier or county, florida, where 911 services are down as search and rescue efforts continue across the state. rachel: search and rescue efforts still underway across the state as 30 people have been confirmed dead with 27 deaths in florida alone. more than 1 million people many florida still without power. here with us today is representative greg steube, he s from the house foreign affairs committee, and, of course, he is from florida. what do you know about this leveesome because we ve been getting conflicting reports, congressman. so i talked to the sheriff and, unfortunately, he couldn t join you because he could give you an update. if they were trying, northport from police and the sarasota sheriff s department has been trying to get people out on boats and and airboats, and they were actually using that intersate area to go back and forth and bring individuals from their homes to the interstate because that was the only way to get them in and out either by airboat or by boat.