Sheriff Marceno delivers an update on Hurricane Ian recovery efforts

Sheriff Carmine Marenco, Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey, and Fort Myers Beach Mayor Ray Murphy deliver an update on Hurricane Ian’s recovery efforts.

Marceno began by saying the death toll in Lee County is 54.

EOC made the decision to close Fort Myers Beach to residents to preserve crime scenes.

“When someone is deceased we have to make sure that we collect that evidence, we have to do it properly, we cannot contaminate the scene and the last thing we need is other people being in the way of that or being in an unsecured place where they could get hurt,” Marceno said.

LSCO said their focus is on life-saving, law enforcement, and enforcing law and order in the county.

“Zero tolerance, I mean zero tolerance. We are in full force, we have quadrupled the number of law enforcement on the streets. We are not going to tolerate any type of looting,” Marceno said.

According to LCSO, there have been three different cases involving looting and they all ended with arrests.

There have been over 100 National Guard members that have been deployed specifically to Pine Island.

“I’m proud to tell you with the assistance of our great Governor Ron DeSantis, as of this morning at 0700 hours we are working with FDOT to begin the construction of a temporary gravel bridge to get people on and off the island,” Marceno said.

Marceno said after the storm, there were up to 4,000 calls holding, and as of this morning, those calls have been taken care of.

“We are back to the normal operation of business, and a new normal. Becasue of all my fellow brothers and sisters in law enforcement and everyone here both local, state, and federal we have been able to get back to handling or operating calls at a normal rate,” Marceno said.

To watch the LCSO Facebook click here or in the post below.

Marceno said the best way to help is to try to keep the roadways clean and try to stay off the road if possible.

“We are running lights and sirens to get to different missions and the quicker we can get to these missions and move forward, the quicker we can recover,” Marceno said.