HURRICANE IAN left a path of destruction across Florida today as it dumped rain over a huge area, while in Cuba, which the storm hit earlier in the week, efforts were continuing to restore electricity supplies.

Catastrophic flooding was threatened across the US state as one of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit the country crossed the Florida peninsula.

People were trapped in flooded homes by Ian, which also cut off the only bridge to the barrier island of Sanibel, destroyed a historic waterfront pier in the town of Naples and knocked out power to 2.5 million people as it dumped rain over a huge area.

President Joe Biden formally issued a disaster declaration and Lee county Sheriff Carmine Marceno said that while he lacked details, he believed the death toll would be “in the hundreds.”

In Cuba, officials said on Wednesday night that they had begun to restore some power after the hurricane knocked out electricity supplies across the entire island.

The storm also devastated some of Cuba’s most important tobacco farms when it hit the island’s western tip as a major storm.

At least two people were reported killed.