The death toll from Hurricane Ian continued to mount Monday amid ongoing rescue and recovery efforts, with NBC upping its grim total to 87.
However, the Associated Press put the total number of fatalities in Florida, North Carolina and Cuba at 68.
With local officials releasing fatality information piecemeal, death toll reports have varied widely across media outlets.
Rescue crews have been going door-to-door in some of the hardest hit areas, including portions of Fort Myers in Lee County and the largely cut-off islands of Captiva and Sanibel.
Meanwhile, two line workers were shocked — one critically — while attempting to restore power to a neighborhood in New Smyrna Beach Sunday night.
One of the victims, a male in his 20s, was rushed to a local hospital with severe burns to his face, back, arm and hands, according to the New Smyrna Police Department, Click Orlando reported.
His partner, a woman in her 40s, suffered minor injuries and declined treatment.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has prioritized the restoration of power, and thousands of line workers have been dispatched across the Sunshine State to work on damaged infrastructure.
Roughly 750,000 homes and business remained without electricity as of Sunday afternoon, while DeSantis reported that more than 1,100 people had been rescued.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden announced plans to visit areas battered by Hurricane Ian, and will touch down in Puerto Rico Monday and Florida on Wednesday.
Here’s everything to know about Hurricane Ian:
Shellshocked residents continued to return to their ruined neighborhoods Monday, with many attempting to salvage any personal items they could while taking stock of the devastation before them, which included roofs ripped off houses and cars being washed away.
Officials in Lee County, where many of the deaths have been reportered, have been criticized for only giving an evacuation order a day before the hurricane hit.
Lee County Commissioner Kevin Ruane defended the county’s actions, telling CNN: “As soon as we saw the model shift northeast, we did exactly what we could to encourage people to [evacuate].”
He also noted 15 hurricane shelters they had opened were not heavily populated.
