Hurricane Ian’s death toll has nearly doubled in one day, with 44 fatalities

Saturday morning, there were 23 confirmed fatalities in six counties from Hurricane Ian’s monstrous trajectory across Florida. But by Saturday evening, the figure had nearly doubled to 44 deaths, with 30 in Lee County, where Ian had battered the southwest coast of the peninsula.

In all, there are now seven counties with fatalities due to the massive storm, according to data from Florida’s Medical Examiners Commission (MEC), which reports hurricane deaths following an autopsy and confirmation that the death is storm-related.

(Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials staff the Florida Medical Examiners Commission.)

FDLE provided the latest figures on fatalities in the seven counties, with most of the deaths on the Gulf side of Florida.

Lake – 1

Sarasota – 3

Manatee – 1

Volusia – 5

Collier – 3

Lee – 30

Hendry – 1

The Saturday evening data did not include details such as county, age, sex, circumstances, and date of death, with one exception: At 5 p.m. Saturday, the 25th death was listed as a 62-year-old female in Sarasota who drowned after being trapped in vehicle.

The Florida Phoenix earlier posted a list that provided more details.

Those details showed that most of the fatalities were older residents — in the mid to late 60s and up to the 90s, according to the data. Some deaths did not include an age. Most of the deaths were from drowning, the data show.