Photo: Reuters
About 10,000 people are still unaccounted for, but many are believed to be in shelters or without electricity.
Hurricane Ian, one of the strongest to hit the mainland United States, caused hundreds of billions of dollars worth of property damage and at least 21 deaths.
On Saturday, the states of Florida, North and South Carolina began to clean up the destruction of the hurricane.
Ian is now gradually weakening to a tropical storm. Still, the US National Hurricane Center warned that it could create dangerous conditions in the Carolinas, Virginia, and West Virginia until Saturday morning local time.
"The threat of dangerous high tides, strong winds, and strong storm surges remains," they said.
Local time, Yan made landfall along Florida's Gulf Coast on Wednesday, lashing beach towns and turning them into disaster zones. It hit Georgetown, north of the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina, with sustained winds of 140 kilometers per hour on Friday afternoon.
Many roads were submerged and trees were uprooted, blocking some roads due to the surge from the ocean, and many jetties were damaged by strong waves.
About 1.7 million homes and businesses in Florida and the Carolinas were without power as of 2:30 a.m. Saturday, according to PowerOutages.us.
Reuters reported that the total number of casualties and the cost of repairing the damage was not yet clear, but the damage in Florida was beginning to clear three days after Ian hit.
Florida Department of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said Friday morning that at least 21 people have died. However, he said that there is uncertainty about the death of some of them.
He said that about 10,000 people have not yet been found, but many are believed to be in shelters or without electricity.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said, “The old houses that were weakened were washed away. I think it will be challenging for those who were in these houses to survive.”
Yanai has suffered the worst damage since Hurricane Andrew in 1992, according to a US property data and analytics company.
US President Joe Biden has approved disaster declarations for Florida and North Carolina. This will make it easier for cyclone-affected areas to get central assistance.
