Florida contractors Superior Construction and Ajax Paving are tackling emergency repairs to the Sanibel Causeway in Lee County, Fla., aiming to have multiple washouts of the three-mile, three-bridge barrier island-to-mainland link repaired by Oct. 31, the Florida Dept. of Transportation says.

In the wake of Hurricane Ian’s devastation across Florida, government officials prioritized emergency road work to reestablish a connection with hard-hit barrier islands. Crewsrestored access to Pine Islandin just a few days, with state attention now turned to the Sanibel Island connector.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) directed FDOT on Oct. 4 to prioritize causeway repair to allow first responders access to the island, as well as crews working to remove debris and restore power.

In an update Oct. 9, he reported agency crews were working around the clock on the causeway to the one barrier island still cut off from the mainland with the last remaining bridge structure that remains closed. The three causeway bridges, constructed in 2007, receive an average of 19,690 trips per day,according to FDOT,

Jessica Ottaviano, agency communications manager, says causeway repair completion may be sooner than Oct. 31, although the roadway experienced significant damage at multiple points along its length when the storm made landfall on Sept. 28.

她说：“从初步评估，维修将包括恢复道路，修复桥梁的方法和执行桥梁稳定性分析。”“大部分工作包括恢复通往桥梁结构的道路和土地，因为它们被冲走了，并且是该岛连接的主要部分。”

这actual bridge structures have been inspected and cleared as safe, she says, with work now moving to linking components back together.

Superior Construction, based in Jacksonville, Fla., and Ajax Paving Florida, based in Fort Myers, were awarded the emergency response contract as prime contractors on Oct. 4, Ottaviano says. Hundreds of trucks and other equipment have been mobilized to the area and various crews are working at multiple places along the causeway. Crews are working in parallel at different locations along the entire causeway, both land-side and marine-side, to expedite repairs.

她说，虽然“预计到10月31日，在临时条件下，Sanibel Causeway可以访问，但FDOT和我们在Lee County的合作伙伴正在竭尽全力，并与这些承包商合作以使访问权限更快地恢复。”

Ottaviano说，一旦立即进行紧急维修，它们将与将随后的永久性长期堤道维修集成。

电力恢复，其他工作和外展

4级飓风带来了150英里 /小时的风，12到18英尺的风暴潮流，到达佛罗里达州西南部的雨水高达17英寸。卡罗来纳州。风暴造成估计有470亿美元的保险损失，according to the National Environmental, Satellite, Data and Information Service。这Associated Press reportsthe storm's death toll has reached 101.

According to Florida Power and Light, 99.8% of all its customers who lost power during the storm now are reconnected, a total of more than 2.1 million. Efforts now are turning to customers still without power in Lee County, in the southwestern part of the state, where Sanibel Island is located.

杜克能源公司（Duke Energy）在佛罗里达州拥有不到200万客户，在伊恩（Ian报道了后者的97%在10月2日之前恢复了权力，并表示将于10月3日在佛罗里达州结束了运营。

DeSantis的办公室报告说，46,481份报告了10月9日剩余的停电，超过42,000名线工人恢复了全州的电力。

根据DeSantis的办公室的说法，美国陆军工程兵团通过其蓝屋顶行动计划安装了第一个临时的蓝色塔普屋顶，该行动为风暴损坏的房屋提供了可宜居房屋的居民，而该地区恢复了。该计划包括Lee，Charlotte，Sarasota，Collier和DeSoto县，那里的军团人员将在那里挨家挨户入门，以免费参加该计划的居民免费临时屋顶。新利luck