Hurricane Ian updates: Florida death toll climbs

Lee County, which encompasses Fort Myers, accounts for most of the fatalities.

The remnants of Ian are charging up the East Coast on Saturday after making landfall as a Category 1 hurricane in South Carolina on Friday afternoon.

The monster storm made its first U.S. landfall on Wednesday on Florida's west coast as a powerful Category 4 hurricane, shredding homes with ferocious winds topping 150 mph. Florida's death toll has climbed to at least 81, according to information from local officials.

Latest headlines:

Here's how the news developed. All times Eastern.
Sep 30, 2022, 5:33 PM EDT

Nearly 350,000 customers without power in Carolinas

As Ian moves north, more than 161,000 customers in North Carolina and more than 187,000 customers in South Carolina are without power.

A firefighter examines a large tree across a road as the effects from Hurricane Ian are felt, Sept. 30, 2022, in Charleston, S.C.
Alex Brandon/AP

More than 1.68 million people are still without power in Florida.

Sep 30, 2022, 5:00 PM EDT

Ian downgraded to post-tropical cyclone

Ian has become a post-tropical cyclone, but winds remain at 70 mph and the "dangerous storm surge, flash flooding and high wind threat continues," the National Hurricane Center said in its latest bulletin.

Hurricane warning and watch areas have now been discontinued, though a tropical storm warning has been issued from Edisto Beach, South Carolina, to Cape Fear, North Carolina.

A pedestrian navigates a driving rain from Hurricane Ian on September 30, 2022 in Charleston, South Carolina.
Scott Olson/Getty Images

Sep 30, 2022, 4:53 PM EDT

Pregnant Florida woman drives through Hurricane Ian to give birth

Floridian Hanna-Kay Williams started to experience contractions late Tuesday evening, just as the Orlando area was experiencing signs of the hurricane to come.

So she braved the strong winds and potentially dangerous flooding to get to a hospital after she went into labor during Hurricane Ian.

Hanna-Kay Williams and her fiancé kiss their newborn daughter, Wajiha, who was born during Hurricane Ian, Sept. 28, 2022, in Melbourne, Fla.
Courtesy of Health First’s Holmes Regional Medical Center

"I was going in and out because the car was swaying in the wind and the rain was intense, but my fiancé is a great driver so I was in great hands," Williams, 22, of Melbourne, told ABC News.

Read more about the account here.

-ABC News' Mary Kekatos

Sep 30, 2022, 2:19 PM EDT

Ian makes landfall in South Carolina as Category 1 storm

Hurricane Ian made landfall in South Carolina Friday afternoon as a powerful Category 1 storm, bringing damaging winds and life-threatening storm surge.

Ian made landfall near Georgetown. The storm is expected to move further inland across eastern South Carolina and central North Carolina through the night and into Saturday.

Hurricane Ian over the South Carolina coast, Sept. 30, 2022.
NOAA via AP

After making landfall, it is expected to weaken and rapidly transition into a post-tropical cyclone overnight. It is forecast to bring heavy rain to North Carolina and Virginia and up through the Northeast on Saturday.

Rainfall rates have been up to 2 inches per hour with heavy rain bands in the Charleston area. Wind gusts up to 92 mph have been recorded.

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