Sunday 2 October 2022 03:00 PM Ian triggers six-hour lines for gas, leaves 10,000 in shelters as power remains ... trends now

For southern Floridians, recovery from Hurricane Ian seems like it may be a long time away, as residents wait in six-hour long lines for gasoline and 10,000 remain in shelters amid ongoing power outages.

Experts now expect the disaster recovery in Florida, as well as in North and South Carolina, to cost tens of billions of dollars — as search efforts continue for those left stranded by the storm, and the remains of anyone who may have perished.

Authorities say at least 77 people have died during the hurricane in Florida and North Carolina, NBC News reports, with the majority of those who died living in Florida's Lee County, which bore the brunt of the storm when it made landfall on Wednesday.

Residents are now huddling at local Wal-Marts to charge their phones, as arguments break out at local gas stations about who got to the pumps first. 

And in Sarasota County, sheriff deputies went door-to-door Saturday morning urging residents of the Hidden River community to evacuate because of a potential levee break, while in Osceola County, authorities urged residents to heed new evacuation orders because flood waters are expected to continue to rise into next week.

'I'm specifically one of those individuals, as I had to be rescued from my house this morning in order to be here today,' Osceola Commissioner Brandon Arrington told residents, adding: 'Places that have never experienced flooding are now experiencing flooding.'

Ian crashed ashore Florida's Gulf Coast with catastrophic force that afternoon as a Category 4 hurricane, packing maximum sustained winds of 150 miles per hour. 

Chugging over land since then, Ian has diminished into an ever-weakening post-tropical cyclone, with the National Hurricane Center lifting all remaining watches and warnings related to the fading weather system by Saturday evening.

The NHC said heavy additional rainfall was possible across portions of West Virginia and western Maryland into Sunday morning, even as 'major to record flooding' was forecast to continue in central Florida.

As the full scope of devastation came into clearer focus days after Ian struck, officials said some of the heaviest damage was inflicted by raging wind-driven ocean surf that rushed into seaside communities and washed buildings away.

Satellite images from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showed beach cottages and a motel that lined the shores of Florida's Sanibel Island had been demolished by storm surges. Although most homes appeared to still be standing, roof damage to all was evident.

Surveys from the ground showed that the barrier island, a popular tourist getaway that was home to some 6,000 residents, was left utterly devastated, from its infrastructure to its famously idyllic aesthetic character.

'It's all just completely gone,' Sanibel's city manager, Dana Souza, said. 'Our electric system is pretty much destroyed, our sewer system has been damaged badly and our public water supply is under assessment.'

The island's link to the mainland was severed by breaches to Sanibel's causeway bridge, further complicating recovery efforts, Souza said.

Roughly 10,000 people throughout the state now remain in shelters after evacuating their homes, officials announced on Saturday, as state and federal agencies continue to recover bodies and stranded residents.

They said that the initial phase of rescuing hurricane victims has largely passed at this point, and the vast majority of rescues are from people who are left stranded in the barrier islands, Miami Herald reports.

Some residents of Matalcha and Sanibel Island, though, have tried to return home — only to find them unlivable, with a lack of water and infrastructure.

'I think after camping out there after a night or two,

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