Hurricane Ian updates: Florida death toll climbs

Ian, now a tropical storm, is near Florida’s east coast and is moving back over water. Ian is expected to re-intensify and could be at near-hurricane strength when it approaches the coast of South Carolina on Friday.

A hurricane watch has been issued for South Carolina and the Georgia coast.

Ian is producing catastrophic flooding over east-central Florida and is expected to produce life-threatening flooding, storm surge and gusty winds across portions of Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.

There are already more than 14,000 customers without power in Georgia.

-ABC News' Max Golembo

Hurricane Ian caused serious damage to the city of Punta Gorda's water system, leaving it empty, the city said in an alert sent out to residents.

Water services will be restored as repairs are made, but the city warned it may take days to complete the repairs, officials said.

The city is under a boil water notice.

Officials set up a water fill station for residents and additional water availability has been requested through the Emergency Operations Center, the city said.

Power has been restored to 502,100 customers, as of 5 a.m. Thursday, Florida Power & Light Company said.

But, the power utility company warned that some customers may experience prolonged outages "because portions of the electric system in Southwest Florida will need to be rebuilt rather than repaired," FPL said in a statement.

The company said is still working to restore power to 1.2 million customers.

FPL said its workforce has increased to more than 20,000 people, including mutual assistance from 30 states, as it works around the clock to restore power.

"Hurricane Ian has forever altered the lives of so many of our fellow Floridians and we recognize the road to recovery will be long and challenging," Eric Silagy, chairman and CEO of FPL, said in a statement.

Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno told ABC News' "Good Morning America" that Hurricane Ian was very unpredictable, with officials tracking the storm every minute and they didn't know where it would hit.

"This is a life-changing event for all of us. We tracked that storm up the coast of Florida, it was very unpredictable," Marceno said.

He added, "We didn't know where it would hit. I can tell you it came into Lee County strong and it was slow moving."

Marceno said there were fatalities, but he didn't yet know the exact number.

Marceno said they are already assessing the area, but the whole area is "crushed" and people are trapped. Marceno said they have thousands of 911 calls that they are currently answering.

"We still cannot access many of the people that are in need," Marceno said. "It's a real, real rough road ahead."

In Volusia County, on Florida's east coast, authorities said one person has been confirmed dead. A 72-year-old man who went outside to drain his pool was swept away and found dead in a canal behind the house.