An elderly woman’s body has been found months after her home was destroyed by Hurricane Ian.
82-year-old Ilonka Knes from Fort Myers, Florida, was declared missing last September when Hurricane Ian struck the coastal town and left her home in rubble.
For months, there were no signs of the missing woman until her body was discovered by a waste removal company during their clean-up efforts.
According to the reports, Knes was found “deep within the mangroves” some distance from her flooded and damaged home in Tropical Shore Way, Fort Myers Beach.
The authorities also reported that they were able to identify the 82-year-old thanks to her dental records while confirming that the cause of death was “accidental drowning.”
Knes was one of the last two people that had been missing for months since the mass destruction caused by Hurricane Ian.
With her finding, the only remaining missing person is 72-year-old James Hurst who was presumably on his sailboat when the storm hit Florida.
As for Knes’ husband, the authorities were able to find his body soon after the natural disaster took place.
“These are not just two bodies – these are two loved ones – these are two family members,” Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said.
“As time moves forward, the scars left by Ian will remind us how far we’ve come when we work together. We will build back stronger than before and it takes all of us,” he added.
Meanwhile, clean-up teams still working in Fort Myers said they are always concerned about what they might come across during their efforts.
“As we are digging in the mangroves, as we are cleaning things up, I’m always concerned about what we find. I hope and pray we don’t have one more fatality,” they said.
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