Ian recovery efforts begin in Florida and the Carolinas

There are more than 1.7 million customers in Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia without power, as the remnants of Ian continue to affect the East Coast, according to PowerOutage.us.

Ian, now a post-tropical cyclone, moved farther inland overnight and is expected to weaken and dissipate over North Carolina or Virginia late Saturday, CNN has reported.

More than 1.25 million customers in Florida are without power, as power officials continue to work to slowly get customers back on the grid in the state. There are about 346,000 customers in Lee County still in the dark.

More than 337,000 customers in North Carolina have lost power, mostly in the central region of the state.

In South Carolina, about 57,000 customers are without power along the northeast part of the state.

In Virginia, more than 91,000 customers have lost power.

While Florida Power & Light has restored power to 1.4 million customers, it could take "weeks to get the lights on for everybody," the utility company's spokesman tells CNN.

David Reuter, the company's chief communications officer, told CNN's Boris Sanchez that 2.1 million customers initially lost power because of Ian and approximately 700,000 of its customers remain without power.

FPL’s focus remains in the state’s western counties, where Reuter said it could take weeks to restore power there.

Power should be restored everywhere in the state except for portions of the state’s battered west coast by Tuesday, he said. 

“We’re not going to stop until every customer is back on,” Reuter said. 

According to Reuter, FPL has invested billions of dollars into hardening the state’s electrical grid with concrete and steel materials, as well as building underground power lines. 

Chef José Andrés and his World Central Kitchen organization have been in Florida's hard-hit Pine and Sanibel islands, delivering water and food to those in need after Hurricane Ian devastated the area.

In a tweet on Friday night, Andrés said his organization has delivered more than 60,000 meals. "We're going to keep coming back every day, to every island," he said in a video.

The Jacksonville Port, Florida’s top container port by volume, has reopened and operations have resumed. 

The port had remained closed on Friday while the US Coast Guard, port and port tenants conducted post-storm assessments.

“Thank you to the @USCG, @CBP, & our JAXPORT employees & partners for their hard work to safely reopen the port after #Ian, ensuring we can continue to provide supply chain security for Florida, Puerto Rico & all communities we serve,” the port said in an update Saturday morning.

The curfew for the city of Fort Myers has been adjusted to 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. ET daily “until further notice,” according to an update from the city. 

Officials said crews are struggling to do their cleanup and restoration work on congested roads, which are creating hazardous situations for first responders and hindering crews’ ability to move cleanup machinery throughout the city.

On Wednesday, the city had issued an emergency citywide stay-at-home curfew beginning at 6 p.m. ET for the following 48 hours.

President Biden approved an emergency declaration for North Carolina overnight following Hurricane Ian.

According to a release from the White House:

More than 640 patients were evacuated from six health care facilities in Charlotte, Lee, Sarasota, Orange and Volusia counties, according to an update from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA).

AHCA teams have completed assessments at all the health care facilities in Lee, Charlotte, and Collier counties, and they "expect to have all assessments complete in DeSoto, Hendry, Highlands and Hardy counties by Friday evening," said the Friday update.

Power has been restored to 230 health care facilities since the storm made landfall, said AHCA. It's unclear how many facilities lost power.

Many beach cottages that lined the shores of Sanibel Island were wiped away by Hurricane Ian's storm surge, aerial imagery from NOAA shows. Most homes appear to have sustained some form of roof damage, in addition to certain storm surge and flooding damage.

The only thing that is left of Gulf Breeze Cottages is the parking lot. All buildings on the property have been destroyed, and their debris litters the area nearby.

Shalimar Cottages and Motel is gone, too. Its 14 cottages and entire motel building were wiped away by the storm. At least four cottages — or what remains of them — are parked in a street. 

Island Inn's main building, which housed its Traditions on the Beach restaurant, has been destroyed. What remains of the building's roof is seen sitting in the parking lot. Sand covers most of the property.

Mitchell's SandCastles has also been completely destroyed. No buildings remain and the property is covered in sand.

Only one building remains of the Waterside Inn on the Beach. The only thing remaining of the eight buildings on the property, which encircle the swimming pool, is debris. 

Only three buildings remain of Sanibel's Beachview Cottages. The storm surge was so powerful, it pushed nearly all of the cottages off their foundation. Only one is seen in the aerial image and is parked where the surge left it — on top of the swimming pool. 

Only a portion of two buildings remain of the Blue Dolphin Hotel. The homes surrounding the hotel appear to have only sustained some roof damage. The only evidence of some hotel buildings are the remaining walls and foundation.

The roofs of four buildings that comprise Ocean's Reach have sustained significant damage. It's unclear how how things fared inside the buildings, but a significant debris field is seen behind the buildings. A covered parking structure behind the buildings has been destroyed as well. 

Even though storm surge is no longer covering Sanibel, a number of homes on the Sanibel Island Golf Club remain underwater. 

A US Coast Guard helicopter can be seen resting on the sand near the Island Beach Club. It's unclear whether it's conducting a rescue when the aerial image was taken.

Large scars in the sands can be seen near the Casa Ybel Beach Resort — the storm surge eroded much of the beach and dunes.

View before-and-after images here.

President Biden continued to pledge federal support for Florida as it deals with the devastation caused by Hurricane Ian — a storm he said was “likely to rank among the worst... in the nation's history.” 

Speaking directly to the people of Florida, Biden said, “We see what you're going through and we're with you. We're going to do everything we can for you.”

Biden claimed that the team of search and rescue experts pre-deployed in Florida at his direction is the largest in recent history.

On Thursday, Biden visited the Federal Emergency Management Agency's headquarters in Washington, DC, and announced that those in Florida without enough insurance will be provided individual assistance of $37,900 for home repairs and another $37,900 for loss of property, including “everything from automobile to a lost wedding ring.”

Biden also said that he intends to visit Florida and Puerto Rico, which continues to deal with devastation caused by Hurricane Fiona.