Florida officials said Friday that at least 21 deaths in the state may be linked to Hurricane Ian, a figure that seemed likely to change as rescue crews reached more of the hardest-hit areas.
Kevin Guthrie, Florida’s emergency management director, said one death in Polk County was confirmed to be related to the storm. He said officials were aware of 20 other deaths, including 12 in Charlotte County and eight in Collier County, that may be tied to Ian once final determinations are made.
The figures provided by the state do not yet include any deaths in hard-hit Lee County, where search crews were still combing through flattened areas of barrier island communities on Friday. Mr. Guthrie described one submerged home where a Coast Guard diver had found bodies inside, but where officials had not been able to establish how many people had died.
“We want to be transparent, but we just don’t know that number,” Mr. Guthrie said.
Determining death tolls in storms is notoriously difficult, especially when there are widespread power outages, flooding and wreckage. Before medical examiners file a death certificate, they must determine whether the disaster played a role in causing the death.
Some deaths, like drownings caused by storm surge or rising water, are said to be direct storm deaths. Others may be called indirect deaths, in which circumstances created by the storm played a role. But people may also have died during the storm for completely unrelated reasons, and would not be included in official storm death tallies.
