The toll continues to rise in Florida after the passage of Hurricane Ian, which caused at least 44 deaths in this southern state of the United States and which should dissipate during the night of Sunday. 

"There are now 44 deaths attributed to Hurricane Ian," the Florida Department of Forensic Medicine said.

Most by drowning and in their vast majority elderly people.

President Joe Biden and his wife Jill are due to visit the state on Wednesday to see the damage caused by this hurricane, according to the White House.

They will go to Puerto Rico on Monday, devastated in September by Hurricane Fiona.

Lee County, heavily hit by Ian, has recorded 35 deaths alone, according to its sheriff, while US media, including NBC and CBS, have recorded more than 70 deaths directly or indirectly related to the storm.

The controversy swelled on Saturday around the late arrival of the evacuation order for more than 600,000 inhabitants of this county, which accounts for half of the confirmed victims.

The order would have been given Tuesday morning, while neighboring counties asked their residents to evacuate on Monday, says the New York Times.

A migrant boat lost at sea

Sitting in the shade of a deserted house in Matlacha, Chip Farrar grows exasperated.

"Nobody tells us what to do. Nobody tells us where to go," he told AFP.

"The evacuation orders came very late," said the 43-year-old.

"But most of the people who are still there wouldn't have left anyway. It's a very working-class place. And most people have nowhere to go, that's the biggest problem." he.

At the same time, the search continued to find sixteen passengers from a migrant boat which capsized due to bad weather on Wednesday near the Keys archipelago.

The Coast Guard said it found two people from the boat dead in the water, with nine others rescued either offshore or after swimming to shore.

After ravaging Florida, Ian headed for South Carolina, where it made landfall Friday afternoon near Georgetown as a Category 1 hurricane, with winds up to 140 km/h, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC).

More than 900,000 homes and businesses were without power in Florida on Saturday evening.

"Years to rebuild"

Saturday afternoon, Ian was carrying winds of up to 35 km / h with still "heavy rain" on the Appalachian Mountains in the southeastern United States, the NHC said in its latest bulletin.

Despite its expected weakening, the authorities of several states still called on the population to be cautious due to the heavy rainfall expected.

In the peninsula, in addition to the heavy human toll, the material damage is "historic", the level reached by the rising waters having been unprecedented, according to Governor Ron DeSantis.

In this state, "we are only just beginning to see the extent of the destruction", "likely to rank among the worst" in the history of the United States, said President Joe Biden.

"It will take months, years to rebuild," he lamented.

According to initial estimates, the passage of Hurricane Ian could cost insurers tens of billions of dollars and will weigh on American growth, in particular due to flight cancellations and damage to agricultural production.

Increased rainfall due to climate change

More than 1,100 people have been rescued in the state so far, Gov. Ron DeSantis' office said Saturday morning.

According to a first rapid study by American scientists made public on Friday, the rains linked to Hurricane Ian have increased by at least 10% due to climate change.

"Climate change didn't cause the hurricane, but it did make it wetter," said one of the scientists involved in the study, Michael Wehner, of the Department of Environment's Lawrence-Berkeley National Laboratory. Energy.

Before Florida, Ian had hit Cuba, causing three deaths and extensive damage and leaving many homes without power there too.

In September, it was Puerto Rico that suffered damage from Hurricane Fiona.

The presidential couple must go there on Monday. 

With AFP

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