First responders in North Port, one of the areas seeing significant impacts from Hurricane Ian, have a message for residents: Do not leave your home yet.
North Port Fire Chief Scott Titus spoke with WFLA’s Beth Rousseau Thursday morning and said crews have not yet been able to fully assess the damage the storm left behind.
Titus said after the winds from the storm died down, tactical teams went out to try and clear some of the main roads in the city so crews could start emergency responses and damage assessments. After just a couple of hours, however, the teams had to get off the roads.
“Crews were finding, nearly on all of our roadways, three [to] four feet of water,” Titus said. “Most of our main arterials are impassable so after they were out for two hours last night, we actually pulled crews back in – it was too dangerous for them to stay out. There’s lots of powerlines down, trees, things like that.”