At least 30 people, including 27 people in Florida, were confirmed dead, mostly from drowning but others from Hurricane Ian’s tragic aftereffects.
The powerful storm affected millions of people, battering western Cuba before raking across Florida from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean.
Now weakened to a post-tropical cyclone, Ian was expected to move across central North Carolina on Saturday morning and reach south-central Virginia by the afternoon.
Meanwhile, distraught residents waded through knee-high water Friday, salvaging what possessions they could from their flooded homes and loading them onto rafts and canoes.
“I want to sit in the corner and cry. I don’t know what else to do,” quoted by Associated Press, Stevie Scuderi said after shuffling through her mostly destroyed Fort Myers apartment, the mud in her kitchen clinging to her purple sandals.
According to AP, Ian’s center came ashore in South Carolina near Georgetown, a small community along the Winyah Bay about 95 kilometers north of historic Charleston. The storm washed away parts of four piers along the coast, including two connected to the popular tourist town of Myrtle Beach.
