Hurricane Ian updates: Florida death toll climbs

The remnants of Hurricane Ian, once a Category 4 hurricane that made multiple U.S. landfalls, are pushing up the mid-Atlantic and bringing widespread rain from Virginia to Connecticut.

Ian is now considered a post-tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph.

Flood watches are in effect in Virginia and West Virginia, where up to 6 inches of rain is expected through Saturday afternoon. A wind advisory is also in effect; gusts could reach 50 mph at higher elevations.

The rain will then continue to move north. Some of the Northeast coast, especially Delaware and Long Island, could see up to 6 inches of rain over the next 48 hours.

-ABC News’ Kenton Gewecke

President Biden has declared that an emergency exists in North Carolina and ordered federal assistance to help with the state's response in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.

"The President’s action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population," the White House said in a statement released early Saturday.

FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize and provide equipment and resources to help the recovery efforts on the ground.

"Deanne Criswell, Administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Department of Homeland Security, named John F. Boyle as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Federal recovery operations in the affected areas," said the White House."

Ian’s winds have come down to 50 mph as the storm continues to move north as a post-tropical cyclone.

Ian will continue to weaken as it moves north, and will bring heavy rainfall in short periods of time through the morning hours, prompting flood watches to be issued from North Carolina to West Virginia.

Sanibel, Florida Mayor Holly Smith said that her city will not be the same following Hurricane Ian's catastrophic impact.

Smith said she was on the island for four hours Friday and witnessed the devastation firsthand.

"Unless you're on the ground, you really can't take in the gravity of what we experienced. It's a different Sanibel," Smith told ABC News Live Prime.

Smith said that she was checking in on 300 residents and that it was very important to make contact.

"As far as we know at this point, the number of fatalities recorded are four,'' Smith said.

"This is going to be a very long recovery process," Smith added of the efforts to get everybody off the island and to safety. "It's not habitable."

Key West did not escape hardship, but in Ian's wake, many Key West residents have expressed relief that the coastal city hadn't endured far worse.

The path of the then-Category 4 hurricane veered west of Key West, sparing it the strongest of the storm's impact. Flooding was reported in nearly 100 apartments. Though the city suffered no casualties or uptick in emergency room visits, Alyson Crean, a public officer with the Key West Fire Department, told ABC News. The city largely returned to normal on Friday, as businesses and schools reopened.

The mix of desolation and relief in Key West embodies the range of fates across Florida, where some communities escaped largely unscathed while others saw tragedy.

"We were relieved when we saw that the storm was turning a different way," Jennifer McComb, the chief executive at the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys, told ABC News. "For a while, it looked like it could've been a direct hit."

Read more here.

-ABC News' Max Zahn