At least 31 people have died in the United States after Hurricane Ian reached the southern shores of the country. 27 of these deaths were reported in Florida, with most of them being linked to drowning. An elderly couple died after their oxygen machines shut off when they lost power.

Hurricane Ian has also caused heavy infrastructural damage too. News agency Associated Press reported that it had now become one of the costliest hurricanes ever to hit the United States.

The powerful storm terrorized millions of people for most of the week, battering western Cuba before raking across Florida from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean, where it mustered enough strength for a final assault on South Carolina.

Now weakened to a post-tropical cyclone, Ian was expected to move across North Carolina then into Virginia and New York.