Hurricane Ian, now a Post-Tropical Cyclone, smashed into Florida on Wednesday causing widespread devastation across the Sunshine State.
On Friday afternoon it made landfall for a second time near Georgetown in South Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane, with the National Hurricane Center (NHC) warning of more flooding on Saturday in North Carolina and Virginia before the storm dissipates.
According to CNN there have been at least 45 deaths suspected to be related to Hurricane Ian, although AP has put the current death toll at 27.
Citing local officials, CNN reports 16 deaths in Lee County, 12 in Charlotte County, eight in Collier County, four in Volusia County and one in each of Lake County, Manatee County and Polk County. Another two deaths were reported in unincorporated Sarasota County.
President Joe Biden said on Thursday that the storm could be the "deadliest hurricane in Florida's history" with the number of deaths expected to climb in the coming days.
The sheriff of Lee County, Carmine Marceno, said on Good Morning America early Thursday morning that fatalities "are in the hundreds" in his area.
Videos posted online showed vehicles and even houses being swept away, roofs ripped off and roads turned into rivers after the hurricane struck.
On Thursday an 11-year-old boy, who had been evacuated from Jacksonville due to the storm, died after falling from the 19th floor balcony of an apartment block in Panama City Beach.
Speaking to CNN one Florida resident, Kevin Behen, said he knew of two men killed by Hurricane Ian whilst ensuring their wives could escape.
Behen said: "These guys pushed their wives out the windows to where a tree was.
"They just looked at their wives and they said, 'We can't hold on anymore, we love you. Bye,' and that was it."
According to the NHC Post-Tropical Cyclone Ian is continuing its way north this morning before dissipating on Sunday.
The federal agency said: "The post-tropical cyclone is moving toward the north near 13 mph (20 km/h). This general motion with a decrease in forward speed is expected today as Ian moves farther inland across central North Carolina and Virginia.
"Maximum sustained winds have decreased to near 40 mph (65 km/h) with higher gusts. These winds are occurring over water off the North Carolina coast. Ian is forecast to weaken further today and dissipate by early Sunday."
The NHC warned flooding could continue in a number of East Coast states over the next few days, as Ian has left the ground saturated.
They warned: "Ongoing major to record river flooding will continue through next week across portions of central Florida. Considerable flooding is possible across portions of the Carolinas and southeast Virginia. Locally considerable flooding is possible across portions of northwest North Carolina and southern Virginia tonight into early Saturday."
Newsweek spoke to several experts about whether ongoing climate change contributed to the intensity of Hurricane Ian.
Bradford Johnson, an assistant professor specializing in meteorology at Florida State University, argued there could be a link.
He said: "Hurricane Ian was the latest in a series of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico that have intensified up until landfall. While research on climate change's impact on individual storms is evolving, many studies highlighted by the IPCC Sixth Assessment report provides insight.
"Persistent warmer sea surface temperatures in the north Atlantic basin enhance a component necessary for rapid intensification of these storms. Evidence strongly links these warmers seas to global warming as a result of human emission of greenhouse gases."
Professor Mark Bourassa, an expert in the tropical disturbances also at Florida State, said it's hard to tell what impact climate change is having.
He stated: "At this time our knowledge of the factors influencing hurricane intensity is so lacking that we can't separate the influences of climate change from other factors. Consequently, we can't establish the importance of climate change.
"We know that global warming (which is certainly happening) has increased the energy stored in the upper ocean, and that this energy powers storms. In the absence of other factors this increased energy would increase storm strength (storm size is more complicated and even less understood). However, other factors are important otherwise we'd have a lot more category 5 storms!"
Survivors of Hurricane Ian in Florida have shared their harrowing escape stories, with one women telling CBS News "you have to either swim or drown."
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James Bickerton is a Newsweek U.S. News reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is covering U.S. politics and world ... Read more