SARASOTA, Fla. — Two people are confirmed dead in Sarasota County after Hurricane Ian hit Wednesday night.
The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office (SCSO) said in a Facebook post on Friday morning, "We unfortunately share that our agency was notified of two deaths within unincorporated Sarasota County that appear to be related to the impacts of Hurricane Ian.'
Police said both deaths involved people who relied on oxygen machines, and these machines went out due to power outages in the area. As of 11 a.m. on Friday, 155,540 residents are still without power in the county.
The people who died were a 94-year-old man who lived in the Palmer Ranch area and an 80-year-old woman in North Sarasota, the Sheriff's Office said.
The news from the county comes after a news conference with Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie. In the news conference, Guthrie said that there was at least one death related to the storm. The state said the person who died was in Polk County.
The state is working to confirm if the storm was responsible for the deaths of 20 other people, he added. Medical examiners would need to make those confirmations.
No other reported deaths from Hurricane Ian have been reported in the Tampa Bay area as of Friday morning.