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2 million people have power restored in Florida but there's still people without power

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Pizza Hut threatens evacuating Floridians with disciplinary action.

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Hurricane Irma caused massive destruction to Florida. But before the storm made landfall, more than 5 million residents - about one-third of the state's population - were told to evacuate for their own safety. Governer Rick Scott even issued a plea for residents to "leave now, don't wait."

As people heeded Governor Scott's orders and fled the state, a Pizza Hut restaurant in the storm's path issued a much different warning to its crew.
U.S. AIR TRAFFIC DIAGRAM SHOWS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE WITH EVERY FLIGHT IN FLORIDA GROUNDED
In a now-viral post on Twitter, a Pizza Hut team member shared a photo of a printout pinned to a cork board that advised Pizza Hut employees on hurricane "guidelines."

The paper, addressed "To all Team members," starts with expectations "as hurricane Irma approaches Florida," stating "our #1 priority is the safety and security of our team. But, we also have a responsibility and commitment to our community to be there when they need us. With that said, I/we need some guidelines in place to ensure both of those expectations are met."

The sheet continued with general rules - the store will close 6-12 hours before a storm - and that if a team member plans to evacuate, they must alert a manager and let them know when they plan to return, citing that a member is only allowed a "24-hour period before storm 'grace period'" and must be back from an evacuation within 72 hours.

"You cannot evacuate Friday for a Tuesday storm event!" the paper read before reiterating that after the 24-hour grace period, team members are expected to work their assigned shifts.

"Failure to show for these shifts, regardless of reason, will be considered a no call/no show and documentation will be issued," it read.

Twitter users quickly responded negatively to the post, calling the company out for caring more about their profits than their employees.

One user pointed out the seemingly absurd fact that Pizza Hut will close for a holiday, but not for a life-threatening hurricane.
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Following the attacks, Pizza Hut issued a statement saying that the Florida store did not represent the corporation's policy as a whole, saying:

"We are uncompromising in our commitment to the safety and well-being of our team members. All locations in the path of Irma are closed and will remain closed until local authorities deem the area safe. We absolutely do not have a policy that dictates when team members can leave or return from a disaster, and the manager who posted this letter did not follow company guidelines. We can also confirm that the local franchise operator has addressed this situation with the manager involved."

As of Monday, 6.5 million people in the state are left without power after Hurricane Irma - changed to a tropical storm once it moved north - swept up Florida.

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Pizza Hut threatens evacuating Florida employees with disciplinary action

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Hurricane Irma caused massive destruction to Florida. But before the storm made landfall, more than 5 million residents - about one-third of the state's population - were told to evacuate for their own safety. Governer Rick Scott even issued a plea for residents to "leave now, don't wait."

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Hurricane Irma toll rises as power restored to over 2 million people

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As evacuated Floridians sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic to head home and face the aftermath of Irma, the weakened storm is still bringing wind and rain to the Southeast.

Irma, which tore a path of destruction across the Caribbean and through Florida, has now caused at least 12 deaths in the United States and left about 6.7 million people without power in five states.

Irma was downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone this morning and is expected to bring heavy rain today to the Carolinas, Kentucky and Tennessee. Irma was located about 65 miles southwest of Atlanta this morning.

Upper Keys and Miami Beach residents permitted to return home

The Florida Keys have been cut off from the mainland for days since Irma made landfall on the low-lying islands Sunday morning as a Category 4 hurricane, bringing 130 mph winds and a storm surge of 10 feet. It was the first Category 4 landfall in Florida since 2004.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott said the storm left "devastation" on the Keys, which were under mandatory evacuation orders during Irma. At least one person died on the Keys.

Officials finally this morning opened entry into the Upper Keys for residents in Key Largo, Tavernier and Islamorada, up to mile marker 73, allowing residents to return home and see the damage for themselves.

Dozens of eager Keys residents parked their cars along U.S. 1 Monday, staying there through the night to make sure they could get onto the Keys when access was granted, ABC Miami affiliate WPLG-TV reported.

Sewage, power and water remain out on the Keys, Scott said today.

While the Keys were under mandatory evacuation orders as Irma neared, not everyone left. Florida Director of Emergency Management Bryan Koon estimates that about 10,000 people remained in the Keys during the storm, according to the Miami Herald.

Further north, Miami Beach residents were permitted to return this morning, too.

Miami Beach Cswys are now open to everyone. Expect delays and use caution. Welcome home! ????
- City of Miami Beach (@MiamiBeachNews) September 12, 2017

Clean up efforts were underway this morning on Miami Beach's iconic Ocean Drive, which was covered in sand from the storm surge and wind. The area was littered with down trees and street signs, but appeared to escape without major structural damage.

Some business owners this morning removed boards from their windows, preparing to reopen.

Heavy rain in Georgia, South Carolina and Jacksonville

Irma moved north Monday, bringing heavy rain and wind through the northern Florida city of Jacksonville and then Georgia and South Carolina.

Wind gusts reached 64 mph in Atlanta, and the coastal city of Brunswick, Georgia, saw over 6 inches of rain.

Charleston, South Carolina, saw a nearly 10-foot storm surge. Five to 6 inches of rain fell in the area and winds reached 66 mph.

Water raced through the streets of Jacksonville earlier Monday, bringing record levels of storm surge along the coast and inland rivers.

Storm pummels Naples and Miami

After Irma left the Keys Sunday morning, it moved north, passing over Naples, which recorded a 142-mph wind gust. The city also saw nearly 12 inches of rain and a 7-foot storm surge. Farther north, wind gusts reached 94 mph in Lakeland and up to 90 mph in the Tampa Bay area.

In Miami, which saw winds up to 99 mph, resident Joe Kiener said he has endured multiple hurricanes in the Caribbean but had never experienced a storm as brutal as Irma.

"I've been in Miami Beach for two years, which is prone to flooding, but this is completely out of the norm," Kiener told ABC News.

Kiener boarded up his house and is staying at a high-rise hotel in Miami. He said he had to move down to the lobby after his hotel room windows took a beating from the strong winds.

"The windows started cracking, and these are massive-impact windows. They were exposed 12 hours of continuous heavy winds. At one point in time, one of them started splintering and that's when I lost my nerve and said, 'I'm leaving,'" he said. "It psyches you out; it's just the endless hallowing and pounding of the wind."

Fatalities in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina

At least seven people, including a sheriff's deputy, died of storm-related injuries in Florida as the hurricane barreled across the state.

One person was killed in Monroe County, which includes the Florida Keys. The man was killed after he lost control of a truck that carried a generator as winds whipped at tropical-storm strength, officials said.

Two others, a sheriff's deputy and a corrections officer, died from a two-car crash in the rain in Hardee County, which is about 60 miles inland from Sarasota, officials said.

In Winter Park, near Orlando, a man was electrocuted by a downed power line Monday morning, according to the Winter Park Police Department. He was pronounced dead at the scene after investigators found him lying in the street, police said.

Another person died from carbon monoxide poisoning from improper use of a generator in Miami-Dade County, the mayor said.

Another person died in Hillsborough County while cutting fallen tree branches.

Another fatality was from a car crash in Orange County in central Florida.

At least three people have died in Georgia as a result of the storm. In Sandy Springs, a man died while lying in bed after a large tree broke and fell on his home, Sandy Springs Mayor Rusty Paul announced on Facebook.

In Forsyth County, a female passenger died after a downed tree struck her vehicle, the sheriff's office said.

A third death was reported in Worth County.

At least two people have died in South Carolina: a 57-year-old man was killed after a tree limb fell on him and a 21-year-old died in a car crash.

At least 37 others died from Irma in the Caribbean, including at least 10 in Cuba.

Millions without power amid widespread evacuations

At least 6.7 million customers are without power in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Alabama this morning, including more than 5.6 million accounts in Florida alone.

Eric Silagy, president and CEO of Florida Power & Light, warned Monday that "people need to be prepared for some prolonged and extended outages."

Floridians are heading home in heavy traffic in the wake of the storm after about 6.5 million people in the state were ordered to evacuate when Irma neared.

Some chose to go to shelters, while others decided to hunker down at home to ride out the storm.

President Donald Trump approved a "major disaster" declaration in Florida on Sunday, authorizing "federal funding to flow directly to Floridians impacted by Hurricane Irma and reimburs[ing] local communities and the state government to aid in response and recovery," state officials said.

Trump may travel to the U.S. Virgin Islands, which suffered extreme destruction from the storm.

ABC News' Max Golembo, Dan Peck, Rachel Katz, Will Gretsky, Jason Volack, Gio Benitez, Rachel Scott, Ben Gittleson and Ben Stein contributed to this report.

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Irma death toll in US climbs to 12 as part of Florida Keys reopens to residents

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As evacuated Floridians sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic to head home and face the aftermath of Irma, the weakened storm is still bringing wind and rain to the Southeast. Irma, which tore a path of destruction across the Caribbean and through Florida, has now caused at least 12 deaths in the United States and left about 6.7 million people without power in five states.

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Floridians are returning from their Irma-induced exodus on Tuesday to find wrecked homes, food shortages and widespread power outages -- and now face a long and daunting road to recovery.

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Floridians are returning from their Irma-induced exodus on Tuesday to find wrecked homes, food shortages and widespread power outages -- and now face a long and daunting road to recovery.

Around 15 million people remain without electricity across the state, according to Chris Krebs, Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection at the Department of Homeland Security.

"I do ask that everyone have patience," Krebs said at a news conference Tuesday morning. "This is going to take some time to restore."

Due to the extent of the damage caused by Irma, Krebs said "this will be a situation about rebuilding," instead of simply repairing damaged power infrastructure.

Communication also remains an issue on some barrier islands, due to cellular disruptions, Krebs said.

Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke said nearly 22,000 federal personnel are in Florida to handle the "long and challenging road ahead."

"A storm of this magnitude needs team effort," she said.

Displaced residents and business owners from Key Largo, Tavernier and Islamorada were allowed to return for their first glimpse of the damage to their homes and offices on Tuesday morning.

Those people from the Lower Keys, however, faced a longer wait, with a roadblock in place where the highway to farther-away islands was washed out by the storm.
HURRICANE IRMA LEAVES 1 MILLION GEORGIA RESIDENTS WITHOUT ELECTRICITY
Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday the Florida Keys bridges appeared to escape serious damage from Irma, but more time is needed to finish inspections.

Gov. Rick Scott said officials continue to check the 42 Overseas Highway bridges that link the Florida Keys together. He said none appear seriously damaged but that "we're not sure that on the bridges we should be putting on significant weight."

Key West City Commissioner Sam Kaufman said late Monday two sections of U.S. 1 washed away from Irma will be repaired by the end of the week. The National Guard is expected to arrive in Key West to distribute water and food, which are at "critically low supplies," according to Kaufman.

Hungry residents across the state are also looking for whatever restaurants and stores still have power to stock up on supplies, and whose food hasn't spoiled due to a lack of refrigeration.

Miami Beach residents were allowed to return their homes Tuesday to assess damage done by Irma, sparking heavy traffic by 7 a.m. at police blocks.

Among them were Lyle and Lydia Calhoun. The couple, originally from South Carolina, has a condo in the Biscayne Bay area and were eager to return home.

"We've been waiting for an hour," Lydia told Fox News. "We're tired, we're dirty and we want to go home."

A handful of businesses, including several Walgreens and 7-Elevens, had reopened with more stores expected to join throughout the day.

"Miami Beach will be up and running soon," resident Scott Looker, who had taken his dog "Diggie Smalls" for a walk near the Port of Miami, told Fox News. "We've done it before and we'll do it again."

Lack of widespread working air conditioning comes at an inopportune time, as temperatures sit in the mid-80s and feel nearly 10 degrees warmer.

In Key West, Kaufman said the city is also desperately low on fuel, and is working with the military for emergency supplies.

Key West resident Laura Keeney was waiting in a Miami hotel until it was safe to return home, and she was anxious to hear more about her apartment complex. Her building manager told her there was flooding there, but further updates were hard to come by because power and cell phone service have been down on the island.

"They told me there is definitely water in the downstairs apartment, which is me," Keeney told the Associated Press.

As sweltering tropical heat returned across the peninsula as Irma moved northward, people in the Tampa Bay area fired up generators or headed outdoors to sit outside to pass the time awaiting for their lights to come back on.

"It's a luxury right? It's a luxury. Big luxury," Jennifer Blaskvitch told FOX 13 Tampa. "I know we pay for it but when it goes out, you expect it to be back quick. But, I understand the circumstances. It could have been a lot worse. So, you just have to be patient."
FLORIDA LOOTING CRACKDOWN IS 'WHITE SUPREMACY,' CLAIMS AUTHOR SARAH JAFFE
Florida Power and Light said its working to restore power as quickly as possible, staging hundreds of trucks and crews from across the country at South Florida sites, WSVN reported.

"Even though we are restoring power, people need to be prepared for some prolonged and extended outages," FPL President and CEO Eric Silagy said. "There are pockets of some real destruction."'

The power company said Tuesday the East Coast of the state is estimated to have power restored by the end of weekend except in areas hit by tornados, flooding, and severe damage.

On the state's West Coast, Florida Power said power is estimated to be restored by Sept. 22, except in areas hit by tornadoes, flooding, and severe damage.

The remnants of Irma were blowing through Alabama and Mississippi on Tuesday after drenching Georgia.

Six deaths in Florida have been blamed on Irma, along with three in Georgia and one in South Carolina. At least 35 people were killed in the Caribbean.

Around the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, where Irma rolled through early Monday, damage appeared modest, and Florida Gov. Rick Scott said effects on the southwest coast, including in Naples and Fort Myers, was not as bad as feared.

Still, Scott predicted that recovery could take a long time in many areas.

"I know for our entire state, especially the Keys, it's going to be a long road," he said.
Fox News' Barnini Chakraborty and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Hurricane Irma leaves millions without power in Florida as evacuees return home

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Floridians are returning from their Irma-induced exodus on Tuesday to find wrecked homes, food shortages and widespread power outages -- and now face a long and daunting road to recovery. Around 15 million people remain without electricity across the state, according to Chris Krebs, Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection at the Department of Homeland Security.

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An 11-year-old Italian boy and his parents died after falling into a popular volcanic crater near Naples on Tuesday, the boy slipping and falling to his doom and both parents getting sucked into hot mud trying to save him.

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An 11-year-old Italian boy and his parents died after falling into a popular volcanic crater near Naples on Tuesday, the boy slipping and falling to his doom and both parents getting sucked into hot mud trying to save him.

Police said the parents were trying to rescue the boy after he entered an off-limits area at the Solfatara Crater in Pozzuoli and slipped.

The boy's 45-year-old father attempted to pull him up and was sucked into hot mud, ANSA reported. When the boy's 42-year-old mother tried to save her husband, she was also sucked in.

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The couple's other son, a 7-year-old boy, managed to get to safety.

A witness to the incident told la Repubblica newspaper he saw the 7 year old crying and asking for help.

"I saw a child run crying, I did not think I was facing the worst tragedy of my life, I'm a father, too," Diego Vitagliano said.

Authorities said it wasn't immediately clear if the family was overcome by gases or molten lava in the area, The Associated Press reported.

The crater is located in the Phlegraen Fields, a sprawling constellation of ancient volcanic craters frequented by Italian school children and tourists from around the world. The fields are scorching hot only a few inches below the surface.

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"I've been here for forty years and such an accident has never happened," Armando Guerriero, owner of a nearby bar located near the entrance to the volcano, told ANSA.

Geologists monitor the area by checking temperatures and chemically analyzing gases. They've determined the fields had risen by about 12 inches over a decade.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Family dies after falling in volcanic crater near Naples

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An 11-year-old Italian boy and his parents died after falling into a popular volcanic crater near Naples on Tuesday, the boy slipping and falling to his doom and both parents getting sucked into hot mud trying to save him.

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A Michigan teenager Andrew David Wilson, 19 shot and killed his mother last week all because she would not let him get a puppy. He was arrested last Friday and was denied chance of bond.

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A Michigan teenager shot his mother to death last week while she slept -- all because the woman wouldn't let her son have a puppy, police said.

Andrew David Willson, 19, was charged with murder and felony firearm possession in the incident. He was arrested Friday and was denied bond, Lansing State Journal reported.

Willson called police just before 7 a.m. Friday saying he found his mother, Lisa Marie Willson, dead in their Williamston home. Officers found the 51-year-old woman with a gunshot wound to the back of her head.
SLENDER MAN CASE ON TRIAL; GIRL'S MENTAL STATE AT ISSUE
Investigators discovered Willson and his mother were the only people in the home Thursday night, when they reportedly argued about keeping a dog the teenager had brought home with him a few weeks prior. Lisa allegedly refused and told Andrew the pet would instead be kept with his father in Dansville, about 11 miles away, Detective Charles Buckland said.

Willson told detectives he took a .22 Magnum rifle from a locked cabinet and shot his mother in the back of the head, before tossing the rifle nearby, Buckland said.

Willson has no prior criminal offenses and is scheduled to be in court Sept. 28.

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Teen shoots, kills mother for not letting him keep puppy, police say

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A Michigan teenager shot his mother to death last week while she slept -- all because the woman wouldn't let her son have a puppy, police said. Andrew David Willson, 19, was charged with murder and felony firearm possession in the incident. He was arrested Friday and was denied bond, Lansing State Journal reported.

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Apple might be the first public company to have a value of 1 Trillion dollars with the latest iPhone's up and coming release

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It's a big day for Apple.

The tech giant is expected to unveil the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X at an event Tuesday, promising wireless charging, a better camera, a bigger screen and a much higher price.

Wall Street is excited, fired up by leaks of Apple's plans before the event.

Apple's stock rose 1.8% on Monday, part of a broader market rally. Apple is up about 40% this year. The only stock in the Dow that's done better is Boeing , with a 55% gain.

Apple is just 2% below the all-time high that it set earlier this month. The company's market value is a staggering $835 billion. If the stock goes up 20% more, Apple will become the first public company worth $1 trillion.

Sure, CEO Tim Cook may face criticism if the company prices the highest-end version of the new iPhone at $1,000 or more, as rumored. Yet analysts think people will still be more than happy to shell out.

Related: Apple's big iPhone reveal -- here's what to expect

Wall Street forecasts that Apple's sales in the quarter that ends in December will be up more than 10% from a year ago and that earnings per share will increase nearly 15%.

And for Apple's next fiscal year, analysts think sales will rise 15% -- to $261.6 billion. Wall Street is predicting that earnings will be up more than 20% next year.

Simply put, increased iPhone sales should boost demand for Apple's Macs, revenue from Apple's iTunes music store and App Store and potentially even iPads and Apple Watches -- the proverbial iPhone halo effect.

Related: Christmas in September? Businesses prep for next iPhone

Macquarie Research analyst Benjamin Schachter wrote in a report Monday that he is in the so-called "super-cycle camp" regarding the iPhone.

"We expect the next iPhone to include innovations that will be clearly visible, marketable, and useful for the mass-market globally." he said in the report.

Despite these high hopes, Apple's stock still trades at a reasonable valuation of less than 15 times earnings forecasts for next year.

That's a discount to the broader market. The S&P 500 is valued at about 17 times estimates for 2018 earnings -- and profits are only expected to increase 11% next year.

Apple is even cheaper if you exclude the iNormous amount of cash it has on its balance sheet: $261 billion. That makes up nearly a third of Apple's overall market value.

Subtract that from the core (pardon the pun) Apple business, and Apple trades for a little more than 10 times earnings estimates for next year.

So even though there is a lot of pressure on Apple to deliver a phone that will eat into the market share of Samsung's Galaxy line and others running on the Google/Alphabet Android operating system, the stock is still reasonably priced.

And investors seem pretty confident that Apple's best days are still ahead.

CNNMoney (New York) First published September 11, 2017: 10:53 AM ET

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Will $1,000 iPhone = $1 trillion value for Apple?

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Apple's stock is soaring thanks to hopes that the next iPhone will lead to a big boost in sales and profits. If Apple keeps this up, the company could soon wind up with a market valuation that tops the $1 trillion level for the first time.

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The new movie IT scaring up an estimated $123 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

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"It" had monstrous box office weekend, scaring up an estimated $123.1 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

The horror flick, based on Stephen King's best-selling novel and starring Bill Skarsgard, Finn Wolfhard, Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Chosen Jacobs and Wyatt Oleff, delivered the largest September opening, largest fall opening and the largest opening for an R-rated horror film. It earned an additional $66.3 million overseas, according to a press release from Warner Bros.

"Home Again," starring Reese Witherspoon, took second place, raking in a not-to-shabby $9 million. "The Hitman's Bodyguard," the box office champ for the last three weeks, bowed in third place with an estimated $4.85 million.

Warner Bros.

Another horror film, "Annabelle: Creation," finished in fourth place, earning an estimated $4 million, and "Wind River" rounded out the top 10 with an estimated $3.2 million haul.

One of the week's other new films, "Rebel in the Rye" -- starring Nicholas Hoult, Zoey Deutch, Kevin Spacey and Sarah Paulson -- had an impressive debut, pulling in $44,280 from just four theaters.

Here are the top 10 movies from Friday through Sunday, with estimated weekend gross ticket sales:

1. "It," $117 million

2. "Home Again," $9 million

3. "The Hitman's Bodyguard," $4.85 million

4. "Annabelle: Creation," $4 million

5. "Wind River," $3.2 million

6. "Leap!," $2.5 million

7. "Spider-Man: Homecoming," $2 million

8. "Dunkirk," $1.86 million

9. "Logan Lucky, $1.8 million

10. "The Emoji Movie," $1 million

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'It' shatters box office records with a $123 million weekend

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"It" had monstrous box office weekend, scaring up an estimated $123.1 million, according to Box Office Mojo. The horror flick, based on Stephen King's best-selling novel and starring Bill Skarsgard, Finn Wolfhard, Jaeden Lieberher, Sophia Lillis, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Chosen Jacobs and Wyatt Oleff, delivered the largest September opening, largest fall opening and the largest opening for an R-rated horror film.

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Critics are saying 25% of houses are destroyed while in the process 15 million people are still suffering from the lose of power.

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The situation in the Sunshine State was trying the patience of people who rode out the storm and those who came home after evacuating Hurricane Irma's path to find widespread devastation and access to their neighborhoods limited at times.

Power outages in Florida affected almost 5 million homes, organizations and businesses, among them gas stations, which need the electricity to keep pumps working.

Two days after Irma made landfall on Cudjoe Key, authorities and a few residents were finally able to reach some of the Florida Keys on Tuesday.

What they found was devastating: Based on initial estimates, 25% of the houses on the chain of islands have been destroyed, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Tuesday. Another 65% suffered major damage.

"Basically, every house in the Keys was impacted some way," FEMA Administrator Brock Long said.

But Key West City Manager Jim Scholl told CNN that FEMA's estimates might be high. The damage in his city and in his neighborhood on Cudjoe Key didn't match those dire numbers, he said.

The biggest challenge in Key West is moving debris out of the roadways. Scholl said he felt sympathy for the people who want to come home, but aren't being allowed this far south because of issues with the water infrastructure. The area is under a boil water advisory.

"That's why we don't want people to, en masse, return down here to the Keys. And we certainly understand the frustration," he said. "Everyone wants to get down here and check out their homes."

It's a long wait for those sifting through what's left of their homes throughout Florida in the oppressive heat and high humidity -- doing so while they wait for the power, and thus the air conditioning, to come back on.

All customers who lost electricity on the eastern side of the state will likely have power restored by the end of this weekend, because fewer electrical poles came down in the storm, Florida Power & Light said Tuesday.

An FPL official told reporters at a Broward County news conference that of the 790,000 customers in that county who lost power, 330,000 had their electricity restored Tuesday.

The company is focusing its efforts first on schools, hospitals and other critical infrastructure. Gas stations and restaurants are next on the plan, the official said.

Customers on the west coast of Florida, where Hurricane Irma made its final landfall, will likely have power restored by September 22, the company has said.

But residents like William Rose have bigger concerns. Rose still can't reach his family on the Florida Keys, where about a quarter of the islands' houses are annihilated.

He's not sure whether his mother, stepdad, grandmother and aunt survived Irma's wrath.

"I have no idea, but I'm trying to stay positive," Rose said.

Before the Keys lost cellphone service, Rose received a text from his mother, who chose not to evacuate.

"This is terrible. I will never do this again," the text read. "I'm so glad you got out."

Roadwork in the Keys

The Florida Department of Transportation said Tuesday night it has determined the bridges between the islands are structurally sound.

Transportation officials said two sections of US 1 that were washed away by Irma, one at mile marker 37 and the other at mile marker 75, have been repaired.

Darwin Tabacco, who stayed on Big Pine Key during Irma, is one of the fortunate residents. Both he and his house survived.

"A lot of people lost everything," he said Tuesday morning. "There's homes blown off the stilts. There's power lines down all over the place. Trees completely uprooted. People's businesses flooded. Septic fields flooding. It's just terrible."

Millions without power

Massive power outages are crippling much of the Southeast on Tuesday. Among the hardest hit by Irma (as of 9 p.m. ET):

About 4.4 million customers -- which includes homes, organizations and businesses -- are without power across the state, authorities said.
Georgia: Almost 700,000 customers are in the dark, according to Georgia Power and Georgia EMC.

South Carolina: Almost 55,000 customers have no power, according to Duke Energy and SCE&G.

North Carolina:
More than 29,000 customers don't have electricity, according to Duke Energy.More than 7,000 customers are without electricity, Alabama Power said.

9 states impacted

Irma, which stretched 650 miles from east to west, has pummeled at least nine states -- deluging city streets, knocking over trees and destroying homes along the way.

At least 16 storm-related deaths have already been reported on the US mainland, according to local officials:

has reported 12 deaths, Alberto C. Moscoso, a spokesman for Florida Division of Emergency Management, said Tuesday evening.had three deaths. A 62-year-old man who was on his roof was killed in Worth County, which experienced wind gusts of 69 mph. Another man was killed in Sandy Springs when a tree fell on his house. And a woman was killed when a tree struck her vehicle in Cumming.
South Carolina
had two deaths.A 57-year-old man was struck by a falling tree limb during the storm. State emergency officials said a driver with a Florida license plate also died from the storm, but did not give further details.

Flights, hospitals will be back online

While the Keys have an exhaustive recovery ahead, signs of normalcy will pop up Tuesday elsewhere in Florida.

And Florida Hospital, a health provider in the state, said it would reopen many of its impacted facilities on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Mammoth flooding

Even a weakened Irma engulfed cities as far north as Charleston, South Carolina, on Tuesday.

"I really didn't expect it to become this bad here," Charleston resident Mike Stusnick said Tuesday. "It came in really fast last night. ... We were just praying that it didn't come all the way into the house, and it didn't."

Jacksonville, Florida -- the largest city by area in the contiguous United States -- is still trying to recover from record-breaking storm surge and flooding on Monday.

More than 300 people have been rescued in Jacksonville, the governor said Tuesday.

"So many areas that you thought wouldn't flood, flooded," Scott said.

Irma's deadly trail -- and questions about climate change

Before slamming into the United States, Irma hit Cuba late Friday as a Category 5 hurricane. Irma killed 38 people in the Caribbean before heading to the United States.

This is the first year on record that the continental United States has had two Category 4 hurricane landfalls in the same year. Last month, Hurricane Harvey devastated much of coastal Texas and killed more than 70 people.

At a news conference Tuesday, both the FEMA administrator and acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke avoided explicitly answering questions about whether Washington needs to focus more on climate change after Harvey and Irma.

Instead, Long and Duke stressed the need for preparedness and resiliency.
Are you affected by Irma? Text, iMessage or WhatsApp your videos, photos and stories to CNN (but only if it's safe to do so): +1 347-322-0415.

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florida official: death toll rises to 12 in state - cnn

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Steve Almasy, Holly Yan and Madison Park, CNN

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Florida official: Death toll rises to 12 in state

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The situation in the Sunshine State was trying the patience of people who rode out the storm and those who came home after evacuating Hurricane Irma's path to find widespread devastation and access to their neighborhoods limited at times.

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There are 6.6 million without power in southeast America. It will take 10 days to get power back in Florida.

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Irma flooded parts of Jacksonville and Charleston, damaged most of the homes in the Florida Keys and left millions without power. Follow here for live updates.

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11-year-old Italian boy and his parents died after falling into a volcanic crater near Naples, his parents were trying to save them and they fell into a mud pit.

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An 11-year-old Italian boy and his parents died after falling into a popular volcanic crater near Naples on Tuesday, the boy slipping and falling to his doom and both parents getting sucked into hot mud trying to save him.

Police said the parents were trying to rescue the boy after he entered an off-limits area at the Solfatara Crater in Pozzuoli and slipped.

The boy's 45-year-old father attempted to pull him up and was sucked into hot mud, ANSA reported. When the boy's 42-year-old mother tried to save her husband, she was also sucked in.

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The couple's other son, a 7-year-old boy, managed to get to safety.

A witness to the incident told la Repubblica newspaper he saw the 7 year old crying and asking for help.

"I saw a child run crying, I did not think I was facing the worst tragedy of my life, I'm a father, too," Diego Vitagliano said.

Authorities said it wasn't immediately clear if the family was overcome by gases or molten lava in the area, The Associated Press reported.

The crater is located in the Phlegraen Fields, a sprawling constellation of ancient volcanic craters frequented by Italian school children and tourists from around the world. The fields are scorching hot only a few inches below the surface.

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"I've been here for forty years and such an accident has never happened," Armando Guerriero, owner of a nearby bar located near the entrance to the volcano, told ANSA.

Geologists monitor the area by checking temperatures and chemically analyzing gases. They've determined the fields had risen by about 12 inches over a decade.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Family dies after falling in volcanic crater near Naples

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An 11-year-old Italian boy and his parents died after falling into a popular volcanic crater near Naples on Tuesday, the boy slipping and falling to his doom and both parents getting sucked into hot mud trying to save him.

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The death count for hurricane Irma is now over 12.

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Florida faces monumental cleanup and repair efforts across the state.

&#151; -- The death toll from Hurricane Irma has climbed to 22 in the United States following its path of destruction across the Caribbean and through the Southeast U.S. over the weekend, while power has now been restored to over 2 million customers in Florida.

And Monroe County announced Tuesday night that all 42 bridges in the county were inspected and "deemed safe for vehicles."

By late Tuesday, Florida Power & Light Co. had restored power to 2.3 million customers, which was 40 percent of those affected across the state; about 4.4 million customers in Florida are still without power as of Tuesday afternoon. The company said its customers on the state's east coast should expect most power to be restored by about Sept. 17, while customers on the state's west coast should expect most power to be restored by Sept. 22.

After days of destruction, Irma -- the first Category 4 landfall in Florida since 2004 -- has dissipated. Now, evacuated Floridians are sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic to head home and face monumental cleanups throughout the state.

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday afternoon that he is set to travel to Florida on Thursday.

Upper Keys and Miami Beach residents permitted to return home

The Florida Keys had been cut off from the mainland for days after Irma made landfall on the low-lying islands Sunday morning as a Category 4 hurricane, bringing 130 mph winds and a storm surge of 10 feet.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott said the storm left "devastation" on the Keys, which were under mandatory evacuation orders during Irma. At least one person died in the Keys.

This morning, officials opened entry into the Upper Keys for residents in Key Largo, Tavernier and Islamorada, up to mile marker 73, allowing residents to return home and see the damage for themselves.

Dozens of eager Keys residents parked their cars along U.S. 1 Monday, staying there through the night to make sure they could get onto the Keys when access was granted, ABC Miami affiliate WPLG-TV reported.

But water, power, sewer, medical services and cell service are still limited, Monroe County officials said today. In the meantime, shelters and distribution centers for food and water are being opened.

Florida's Department of Transportation is also today working to repair two 300-foot stretches of road on the Keys that was washed out.

While the Keys were under mandatory evacuation orders as Irma neared, not everyone left. Florida Director of Emergency Management Bryan Koon estimates that about 10,000 people remained in the Keys during the storm, according to the Miami Herald.

County officials are working to restore services and make the county safe for residents in the Middle and Lower Keys to return, they said today, adding that this will take time.

Further north, Miami Beach residents were permitted to return this morning, too.

Clean up efforts were underway this morning on Miami Beach's iconic Ocean Drive, which was covered in sand from the storm surge and wind. The area was littered with downed trees and street signs, but appeared to escape without major structural damage.

Some business owners this morning removed boards from their windows, preparing to reopen.

Flooding in Jacksonville and Charleston

On Monday, Irma brought heavy rain and wind through the northern Florida city of Jacksonville as well as South Carolina and Georgia.

When water raced through the streets of Jacksonville, it brought record levels of storm surge along the coast and inland rivers. Over 350 people were rescued from the flooding, but no casualties were reported there.

Irma also pummeled the Charleston area on Monday with over 8 inches of rain and a nearly 10-foot storm surge.

Storm pummels Naples and Miami

On Sunday Irma passed over Naples, bringing torrential rain and a powerful 142-mph wind gust. Naples saw nearly 12 inches of rain and a 7-foot storm surge.

In Miami, which saw winds up to 99 mph, resident Joe Kiener said he has endured multiple hurricanes in the Caribbean but had never experienced a storm as brutal as Irma.

"I've been in Miami Beach for two years, which is prone to flooding, but this is completely out of the norm," Kiener told ABC News.

Kiener boarded up his house and stayed at a high-rise hotel in Miami. But he had to move down to the lobby after his hotel room windows took a beating from the strong winds.

"The windows started cracking, and these are massive-impact windows. They were exposed 12 hours of continuous heavy winds. At one point in time, one of them started splintering and that's when I lost my nerve and said, 'I'm leaving,'" he said. "It psyches you out; it's just the endless hallowing and pounding of the wind."

Today the curfew for Miami-Dade County has been lifted as crews work to clear roads. But half of the county's traffic lights are still not working.

Fatalities in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and the Caribbean

At least 15 people, including a sheriff's deputy, died of storm-related injuries in Florida.

One person was killed in Monroe County, which includes the Florida Keys. The victim was killed after he lost control of a truck that carried a generator as winds whipped at tropical-storm strength, officials said.

Two people -- a sheriff's deputy and a corrections officer -- died from a two-car crash in the rain in Hardee County, which is about 60 miles inland from Sarasota, officials said.

In Winter Park, near Orlando, a man was electrocuted by a downed power line Monday morning, according to police.

On Tuesday, the office of Florida Gov. Rick Scott confirmed five additional deaths. The Orange County Sheriff's Office announced the death of three people whom "appear to be a family of multiple generations." Fumes from a portable gas generator appears to have been running inside the house, and the individuals were overcome by fumes.

Another person died from carbon monoxide poisoning from improper use of a generator in Miami-Dade County, the mayor said.

Another person died in Hillsborough County while cutting fallen tree branches.

Another fatality was from a car crash in Orange County in central Florida.

At least three people have died in Georgia as a result of the storm. In Sandy Springs, a man died while lying in bed after a large tree broke and fell on his home, the Sandy Springs Mayor said.

In Forsyth County, a female passenger died after a downed tree struck her vehicle, the sheriff's office said.

A third death was reported in Worth County.

At least four people have died in South Carolina: a 57-year-old man was killed after a tree limb fell on him and a 21-year-old died in a car crash.

At least 37 others died from Irma in the Caribbean, including at least 10 in Cuba.
ABC News' Darren Reynolds, Max Golembo, Dan Peck, Rachel Katz, Will Gretsky, Jason Volack, Gio Benitez, Rachel Scott, Ben Gittleson and Ben Stein contributed to this report.

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Irma death toll in US climbs to 22 as power is restored to over 2 million Florida customers

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Heavy rain and winds are battering the South.

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Family dies after falling in volcanic crater near Naples

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An 11-year-old Italian boy and his parents died after falling into a popular volcanic crater near Naples on Tuesday, the boy slipping and falling to his doom and both parents getting sucked into hot mud trying to save him.

Police said the parents were trying to rescue the boy after he entered an off-limits area at the Solfatara Crater in Pozzuoli and slipped.

The boy's 45-year-old father attempted to pull him up and was sucked into hot mud, ANSA reported. When the boy's 42-year-old mother tried to save her husband, she was also sucked in.

Related Image

Expand / Collapse

The couple's other son, a 7-year-old boy, managed to get to safety.

A witness to the incident told la Repubblica newspaper he saw the 7 year old crying and asking for help.

"I saw a child run crying, I did not think I was facing the worst tragedy of my life, I'm a father, too," Diego Vitagliano said.

Authorities said it wasn't immediately clear if the family was overcome by gases or molten lava in the area, The Associated Press reported.

The crater is located in the Phlegraen Fields, a sprawling constellation of ancient volcanic craters frequented by Italian school children and tourists from around the world. The fields are scorching hot only a few inches below the surface.

Related Image

Expand / Collapse

"I've been here for forty years and such an accident has never happened," Armando Guerriero, owner of a nearby bar located near the entrance to the volcano, told ANSA.

Geologists monitor the area by checking temperatures and chemically analyzing gases. They've determined the fields had risen by about 12 inches over a decade.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Family dies after falling in volcanic crater near Naples

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An 11-year-old Italian boy and his parents died after falling into a popular volcanic crater near Naples on Tuesday, the boy slipping and falling to his doom and both parents getting sucked into hot mud trying to save him.

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25% of homes in the Florida keys got destroyed, and 15 million people are without power in Florida and they don't get it back until September 22nd.

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The situation in the Sunshine State was trying the patience of people who rode out the storm and those who came home after evacuating Hurricane Irma's path to find widespread devastation and access to their neighborhoods limited at times.

Power outages in Florida affected almost 5 million homes, organizations and businesses, among them gas stations, which need the electricity to keep pumps working.

Two days after Irma made landfall on Cudjoe Key, authorities and a few residents were finally able to reach some of the Florida Keys on Tuesday.

What they found was devastating: Based on initial estimates, 25% of the houses on the chain of islands have been destroyed, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Tuesday. Another 65% suffered major damage.

"Basically, every house in the Keys was impacted some way," FEMA Administrator Brock Long said.

But Key West City Manager Jim Scholl told CNN that FEMA's estimates might be high. The damage in his city and in his neighborhood on Cudjoe Key didn't match those dire numbers, he said.

The biggest challenge in Key West is moving debris out of the roadways. Scholl said he felt sympathy for the people who want to come home, but aren't being allowed this far south because of issues with the water infrastructure. The area is under a boil water advisory.

"That's why we don't want people to, en masse, return down here to the Keys. And we certainly understand the frustration," he said. "Everyone wants to get down here and check out their homes."

It's a long wait for those sifting through what's left of their homes throughout Florida in the oppressive heat and high humidity -- doing so while they wait for the power, and thus the air conditioning, to come back on.

All customers who lost electricity on the eastern side of the state will likely have power restored by the end of this weekend, because fewer electrical poles came down in the storm, Florida Power & Light said Tuesday.

An FPL official told reporters at a Broward County news conference that of the 790,000 customers in that county who lost power, 330,000 had their electricity restored Tuesday.

The company is focusing its efforts first on schools, hospitals and other critical infrastructure. Gas stations and restaurants are next on the plan, the official said.

Customers on the west coast of Florida, where Hurricane Irma made its final landfall, will likely have power restored by September 22, the company has said.

But residents like William Rose have bigger concerns. Rose still can't reach his family on the Florida Keys, where about a quarter of the islands' houses are annihilated.

He's not sure whether his mother, stepdad, grandmother and aunt survived Irma's wrath.

"I have no idea, but I'm trying to stay positive," Rose said.

Before the Keys lost cellphone service, Rose received a text from his mother, who chose not to evacuate.

"This is terrible. I will never do this again," the text read. "I'm so glad you got out."

Roadwork in the Keys

The Florida Department of Transportation said Tuesday night it has determined the bridges between the islands are structurally sound.

Transportation officials said two sections of US 1 that were washed away by Irma, one at mile marker 37 and the other at mile marker 75, have been repaired.

Darwin Tabacco, who stayed on Big Pine Key during Irma, is one of the fortunate residents. Both he and his house survived.

"A lot of people lost everything," he said Tuesday morning. "There's homes blown off the stilts. There's power lines down all over the place. Trees completely uprooted. People's businesses flooded. Septic fields flooding. It's just terrible."

Millions without power

Massive power outages are crippling much of the Southeast on Tuesday. Among the hardest hit by Irma (as of 9 p.m. ET):

About 4.4 million customers -- which includes homes, organizations and businesses -- are without power across the state, authorities said.
Georgia: Almost 700,000 customers are in the dark, according to Georgia Power and Georgia EMC.

South Carolina: Almost 55,000 customers have no power, according to Duke Energy and SCE&G.

North Carolina:
More than 29,000 customers don't have electricity, according to Duke Energy.More than 7,000 customers are without electricity, Alabama Power said.

9 states impacted

Irma, which stretched 650 miles from east to west, has pummeled at least nine states -- deluging city streets, knocking over trees and destroying homes along the way.

At least 16 storm-related deaths have already been reported on the US mainland, according to local officials:

has reported 12 deaths, Alberto C. Moscoso, a spokesman for Florida Division of Emergency Management, said Tuesday evening.had three deaths. A 62-year-old man who was on his roof was killed in Worth County, which experienced wind gusts of 69 mph. Another man was killed in Sandy Springs when a tree fell on his house. And a woman was killed when a tree struck her vehicle in Cumming.
South Carolina
had two deaths.A 57-year-old man was struck by a falling tree limb during the storm. State emergency officials said a driver with a Florida license plate also died from the storm, but did not give further details.

Flights, hospitals will be back online

While the Keys have an exhaustive recovery ahead, signs of normalcy will pop up Tuesday elsewhere in Florida.

And Florida Hospital, a health provider in the state, said it would reopen many of its impacted facilities on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Mammoth flooding

Even a weakened Irma engulfed cities as far north as Charleston, South Carolina, on Tuesday.

"I really didn't expect it to become this bad here," Charleston resident Mike Stusnick said Tuesday. "It came in really fast last night. ... We were just praying that it didn't come all the way into the house, and it didn't."

Jacksonville, Florida -- the largest city by area in the contiguous United States -- is still trying to recover from record-breaking storm surge and flooding on Monday.

More than 300 people have been rescued in Jacksonville, the governor said Tuesday.

"So many areas that you thought wouldn't flood, flooded," Scott said.

Irma's deadly trail -- and questions about climate change

Before slamming into the United States, Irma hit Cuba late Friday as a Category 5 hurricane. Irma killed 38 people in the Caribbean before heading to the United States.

This is the first year on record that the continental United States has had two Category 4 hurricane landfalls in the same year. Last month, Hurricane Harvey devastated much of coastal Texas and killed more than 70 people.

At a news conference Tuesday, both the FEMA administrator and acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke avoided explicitly answering questions about whether Washington needs to focus more on climate change after Harvey and Irma.

Instead, Long and Duke stressed the need for preparedness and resiliency.
Are you affected by Irma? Text, iMessage or WhatsApp your videos, photos and stories to CNN (but only if it's safe to do so): +1 347-322-0415.

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florida official: death toll rises to 12 in state - cnn

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Steve Almasy, Holly Yan and Madison Park, CNN

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Florida official: Death toll rises to 12 in state

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The situation in the Sunshine State was trying the patience of people who rode out the storm and those who came home after evacuating Hurricane Irma's path to find widespread devastation and access to their neighborhoods limited at times.

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2 million people have power after the hurricane on Saturday  now 12 people dead

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Florida faces monumental cleanup and repair efforts across the state.

&#151; -- The death toll from Hurricane Irma has climbed to 22 in the United States following its path of destruction across the Caribbean and through the Southeast U.S. over the weekend, while power has now been restored to over 2 million customers in Florida.

And Monroe County announced Tuesday night that all 42 bridges in the county were inspected and "deemed safe for vehicles."

By late Tuesday, Florida Power & Light Co. had restored power to 2.3 million customers, which was 40 percent of those affected across the state; about 4.4 million customers in Florida are still without power as of Tuesday afternoon. The company said its customers on the state's east coast should expect most power to be restored by about Sept. 17, while customers on the state's west coast should expect most power to be restored by Sept. 22.

After days of destruction, Irma -- the first Category 4 landfall in Florida since 2004 -- has dissipated. Now, evacuated Floridians are sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic to head home and face monumental cleanups throughout the state.

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday afternoon that he is set to travel to Florida on Thursday.

Upper Keys and Miami Beach residents permitted to return home

The Florida Keys had been cut off from the mainland for days after Irma made landfall on the low-lying islands Sunday morning as a Category 4 hurricane, bringing 130 mph winds and a storm surge of 10 feet.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott said the storm left "devastation" on the Keys, which were under mandatory evacuation orders during Irma. At least one person died in the Keys.

This morning, officials opened entry into the Upper Keys for residents in Key Largo, Tavernier and Islamorada, up to mile marker 73, allowing residents to return home and see the damage for themselves.

Dozens of eager Keys residents parked their cars along U.S. 1 Monday, staying there through the night to make sure they could get onto the Keys when access was granted, ABC Miami affiliate WPLG-TV reported.

But water, power, sewer, medical services and cell service are still limited, Monroe County officials said today. In the meantime, shelters and distribution centers for food and water are being opened.

Florida's Department of Transportation is also today working to repair two 300-foot stretches of road on the Keys that was washed out.

While the Keys were under mandatory evacuation orders as Irma neared, not everyone left. Florida Director of Emergency Management Bryan Koon estimates that about 10,000 people remained in the Keys during the storm, according to the Miami Herald.

County officials are working to restore services and make the county safe for residents in the Middle and Lower Keys to return, they said today, adding that this will take time.

Further north, Miami Beach residents were permitted to return this morning, too.

Clean up efforts were underway this morning on Miami Beach's iconic Ocean Drive, which was covered in sand from the storm surge and wind. The area was littered with downed trees and street signs, but appeared to escape without major structural damage.

Some business owners this morning removed boards from their windows, preparing to reopen.

Flooding in Jacksonville and Charleston

On Monday, Irma brought heavy rain and wind through the northern Florida city of Jacksonville as well as South Carolina and Georgia.

When water raced through the streets of Jacksonville, it brought record levels of storm surge along the coast and inland rivers. Over 350 people were rescued from the flooding, but no casualties were reported there.

Irma also pummeled the Charleston area on Monday with over 8 inches of rain and a nearly 10-foot storm surge.

Storm pummels Naples and Miami

On Sunday Irma passed over Naples, bringing torrential rain and a powerful 142-mph wind gust. Naples saw nearly 12 inches of rain and a 7-foot storm surge.

In Miami, which saw winds up to 99 mph, resident Joe Kiener said he has endured multiple hurricanes in the Caribbean but had never experienced a storm as brutal as Irma.

"I've been in Miami Beach for two years, which is prone to flooding, but this is completely out of the norm," Kiener told ABC News.

Kiener boarded up his house and stayed at a high-rise hotel in Miami. But he had to move down to the lobby after his hotel room windows took a beating from the strong winds.

"The windows started cracking, and these are massive-impact windows. They were exposed 12 hours of continuous heavy winds. At one point in time, one of them started splintering and that's when I lost my nerve and said, 'I'm leaving,'" he said. "It psyches you out; it's just the endless hallowing and pounding of the wind."

Today the curfew for Miami-Dade County has been lifted as crews work to clear roads. But half of the county's traffic lights are still not working.

Fatalities in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and the Caribbean

At least 15 people, including a sheriff's deputy, died of storm-related injuries in Florida.

One person was killed in Monroe County, which includes the Florida Keys. The victim was killed after he lost control of a truck that carried a generator as winds whipped at tropical-storm strength, officials said.

Two people -- a sheriff's deputy and a corrections officer -- died from a two-car crash in the rain in Hardee County, which is about 60 miles inland from Sarasota, officials said.

In Winter Park, near Orlando, a man was electrocuted by a downed power line Monday morning, according to police.

On Tuesday, the office of Florida Gov. Rick Scott confirmed five additional deaths. The Orange County Sheriff's Office announced the death of three people whom "appear to be a family of multiple generations." Fumes from a portable gas generator appears to have been running inside the house, and the individuals were overcome by fumes.

Another person died from carbon monoxide poisoning from improper use of a generator in Miami-Dade County, the mayor said.

Another person died in Hillsborough County while cutting fallen tree branches.

Another fatality was from a car crash in Orange County in central Florida.

At least three people have died in Georgia as a result of the storm. In Sandy Springs, a man died while lying in bed after a large tree broke and fell on his home, the Sandy Springs Mayor said.

In Forsyth County, a female passenger died after a downed tree struck her vehicle, the sheriff's office said.

A third death was reported in Worth County.

At least four people have died in South Carolina: a 57-year-old man was killed after a tree limb fell on him and a 21-year-old died in a car crash.

At least 37 others died from Irma in the Caribbean, including at least 10 in Cuba.
ABC News' Darren Reynolds, Max Golembo, Dan Peck, Rachel Katz, Will Gretsky, Jason Volack, Gio Benitez, Rachel Scott, Ben Gittleson and Ben Stein contributed to this report.

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Irma death toll in US climbs to 22 as power is restored to over 2 million Florida customers

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Heavy rain and winds are battering the South.

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A U-haul was stolen in Albuquerque, N.M. with a CASKET inside. The casket was later found still carrying the body

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Police say thieves have stolen an SUV and an attached U-Haul trailer - with a casket inside - outside an Albuquerque motel.

Albuquerque police say the heist occurred early Monday at a Residence Inn and the casket was later found not too far from the site it was taken.

Authorities say the casket contained the body of the victim's father-in-law.

The U-Haul was located after police searched for a black 2005 Chevy Trailblazer SUV with Oklahoma license plates.

Police said the deceased man's daughter and her husband were on their way from Oklahoma to Kirtland, New Mexico, to bury him.

No arrests have been made.

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Thieves steal U-Haul with casket inside, police say

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Police say thieves have stolen an SUV and an attached U-Haul trailer - with a casket inside - outside an Albuquerque motel.

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Teens in Alaska are petitioning for a climate change in their environment.

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A group of Alaska teenagers has sent a petition to the state's environmental agency in hopes of tightening climate change policy.

The teens' petition calls for the state to reduce carbon emissions, monitor the greenhouse gasses it does emit and come up with a strategy for the future, Alaska's Energy Desk reported ( http://bit.ly/2wTjHSE ) Monday.

The group, named Alaska Youth for Environmental Action, hand-delivered the petition in August to the Department of Environmental Conservation's commissioner, Larry Hartig.

The petition follows a 2011 climate change lawsuit filed by a different group of Alaska teens, which made it all the way to the state Supreme Court before justices ruled that it was a matter for the executive or legislative branch.

Brad DeNoble, a lawyer from Eagle River who helped craft both the lawsuit and the current petition, said the state could be obligated to do more to address climate change under a common law with ancient roots that is called the public trust doctrine.

"Certain resources are essentially so important to society that they have to be protected," DeNoble said. "They're incapable of private ownership."

Seb Kurland, 17, is among the teens fighting for climate change policy. Kurland said she has noticed the landscape around her hometown of Juneau looks different than it did not that long ago - especially because the Mendenhall Glacier is shrinking.

"You know, one of the hard things especially about being a teenager with these concerns is that you don't feel like you can do anything about it," Kurland said. "Basically what we're saying with this petition is, 'Hey you're not doing that!' "

The state has until Sep. 29 to respond to the petition. Officials can reject it or call a public hearing.

Young people in other parts of the country have tried to pressure governments on their climate change policies as well. In Oregon, 21 young Americans filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration claiming their rights have been violated because the federal government has allowed greenhouse gas pollution to be pumped into the atmosphere for 50 years, despite knowing the risks.

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Alaska teens petition for statewide climate change policy

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A group of Alaska teenagers has sent a petition to the state's environmental agency in hopes of tightening climate change policy. The teens' petition calls for the state to reduce carbon emissions, monitor the greenhouse gasses it does emit and come up with a strategy for the future,...

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hurriciane irma leaves trial of destruction and broken records and is moving now towards ohio and tennesse as a nasty thunderstorm with its top winds now only at 25 mph

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plane crash-lands after slamming into tree - cnn video

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Plane crash-lands after slamming into tree - CNN Video

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A pilot survived a dramatic crash landing in a parking lot in Connecticut.

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Florida largest airport was closed down over the weekend, now that the storm passed they are fixing the damages and updating the travelers.http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/11/news/companies/florida-airports-irma/index.html

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Florida there about 25% of people with homes destroy after the hurricane transportation has been blocked of two sections of the road from water 37 to 75 mile mark and there is still

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The situation in the Sunshine State was trying the patience of people who rode out the storm and those who came home after evacuating Hurricane Irma's path to find widespread devastation and access to their neighborhoods limited at times.

Power outages in Florida affected almost 5 million homes, organizations and businesses, among them gas stations, which need the electricity to keep pumps working.

Two days after Irma made landfall on Cudjoe Key, authorities and a few residents were finally able to reach some of the Florida Keys on Tuesday.

What they found was devastating: Based on initial estimates, 25% of the houses on the chain of islands have been destroyed, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Tuesday. Another 65% suffered major damage.

"Basically, every house in the Keys was impacted some way," FEMA Administrator Brock Long said.

But Key West City Manager Jim Scholl told CNN that FEMA's estimates might be high. The damage in his city and in his neighborhood on Cudjoe Key didn't match those dire numbers, he said.

The biggest challenge in Key West is moving debris out of the roadways. Scholl said he felt sympathy for the people who want to come home, but aren't being allowed this far south because of issues with the water infrastructure. The area is under a boil water advisory.

"That's why we don't want people to, en masse, return down here to the Keys. And we certainly understand the frustration," he said. "Everyone wants to get down here and check out their homes."

It's a long wait for those sifting through what's left of their homes throughout Florida in the oppressive heat and high humidity -- doing so while they wait for the power, and thus the air conditioning, to come back on.

All customers who lost electricity on the eastern side of the state will likely have power restored by the end of this weekend, because fewer electrical poles came down in the storm, Florida Power & Light said Tuesday.

An FPL official told reporters at a Broward County news conference that of the 790,000 customers in that county who lost power, 330,000 had their electricity restored Tuesday.

The company is focusing its efforts first on schools, hospitals and other critical infrastructure. Gas stations and restaurants are next on the plan, the official said.

Customers on the west coast of Florida, where Hurricane Irma made its final landfall, will likely have power restored by September 22, the company has said.

But residents like William Rose have bigger concerns. Rose still can't reach his family on the Florida Keys, where about a quarter of the islands' houses are annihilated.

He's not sure whether his mother, stepdad, grandmother and aunt survived Irma's wrath.

"I have no idea, but I'm trying to stay positive," Rose said.

Before the Keys lost cellphone service, Rose received a text from his mother, who chose not to evacuate.

"This is terrible. I will never do this again," the text read. "I'm so glad you got out."

Roadwork in the Keys

The Florida Department of Transportation said Tuesday night it has determined the bridges between the islands are structurally sound.

Transportation officials said two sections of US 1 that were washed away by Irma, one at mile marker 37 and the other at mile marker 75, have been repaired.

Darwin Tabacco, who stayed on Big Pine Key during Irma, is one of the fortunate residents. Both he and his house survived.

"A lot of people lost everything," he said Tuesday morning. "There's homes blown off the stilts. There's power lines down all over the place. Trees completely uprooted. People's businesses flooded. Septic fields flooding. It's just terrible."

Millions without power

Massive power outages are crippling much of the Southeast on Tuesday. Among the hardest hit by Irma (as of 9 p.m. ET):

About 4.4 million customers -- which includes homes, organizations and businesses -- are without power across the state, authorities said.
Georgia: Almost 700,000 customers are in the dark, according to Georgia Power and Georgia EMC.

South Carolina: Almost 55,000 customers have no power, according to Duke Energy and SCE&G.

North Carolina:
More than 29,000 customers don't have electricity, according to Duke Energy.More than 7,000 customers are without electricity, Alabama Power said.

9 states impacted

Irma, which stretched 650 miles from east to west, has pummeled at least nine states -- deluging city streets, knocking over trees and destroying homes along the way.

At least 16 storm-related deaths have already been reported on the US mainland, according to local officials:

has reported 12 deaths, Alberto C. Moscoso, a spokesman for Florida Division of Emergency Management, said Tuesday evening.had three deaths. A 62-year-old man who was on his roof was killed in Worth County, which experienced wind gusts of 69 mph. Another man was killed in Sandy Springs when a tree fell on his house. And a woman was killed when a tree struck her vehicle in Cumming.
South Carolina
had two deaths.A 57-year-old man was struck by a falling tree limb during the storm. State emergency officials said a driver with a Florida license plate also died from the storm, but did not give further details.

Flights, hospitals will be back online

While the Keys have an exhaustive recovery ahead, signs of normalcy will pop up Tuesday elsewhere in Florida.

And Florida Hospital, a health provider in the state, said it would reopen many of its impacted facilities on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Mammoth flooding

Even a weakened Irma engulfed cities as far north as Charleston, South Carolina, on Tuesday.

"I really didn't expect it to become this bad here," Charleston resident Mike Stusnick said Tuesday. "It came in really fast last night. ... We were just praying that it didn't come all the way into the house, and it didn't."

Jacksonville, Florida -- the largest city by area in the contiguous United States -- is still trying to recover from record-breaking storm surge and flooding on Monday.

More than 300 people have been rescued in Jacksonville, the governor said Tuesday.

"So many areas that you thought wouldn't flood, flooded," Scott said.

Irma's deadly trail -- and questions about climate change

Before slamming into the United States, Irma hit Cuba late Friday as a Category 5 hurricane. Irma killed 38 people in the Caribbean before heading to the United States.

This is the first year on record that the continental United States has had two Category 4 hurricane landfalls in the same year. Last month, Hurricane Harvey devastated much of coastal Texas and killed more than 70 people.

At a news conference Tuesday, both the FEMA administrator and acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke avoided explicitly answering questions about whether Washington needs to focus more on climate change after Harvey and Irma.

Instead, Long and Duke stressed the need for preparedness and resiliency.
Are you affected by Irma? Text, iMessage or WhatsApp your videos, photos and stories to CNN (but only if it's safe to do so): +1 347-322-0415.

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florida official: death toll rises to 12 in state - cnn

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Steve Almasy, Holly Yan and Madison Park, CNN

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Florida official: Death toll rises to 12 in state

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The situation in the Sunshine State was trying the patience of people who rode out the storm and those who came home after evacuating Hurricane Irma's path to find widespread devastation and access to their neighborhoods limited at times.

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A pilot survived a dramatic crash in Connecticut.

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Plane crash-lands after slamming into tree - CNN Video

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A pilot survived a dramatic crash landing in a parking lot in Connecticut.

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Anshu Jamsenpa climbs Mount. Everest twice is 5 days. She broke Records, and made global headlines

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first woman to ascend mount everest twice in five days - cnn

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The mother who climbed Everest -- twice in 5 days!

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The Indian married mother-of-two has scaled the highest mountain in the world fives times.

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Plane crash-lands after slamming into tree
the plant was just all course and the pilot is ok.

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plane crash-lands after slamming into tree - cnn video

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Plane crash-lands after slamming into tree - CNN Video

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A pilot survived a dramatic crash landing in a parking lot in Connecticut.

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It may be ten days till power will be restored in Florida due to hurricane Irma, and 25% of homes were destroyed in the Florida Keys

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Irma flooded parts of Jacksonville and Charleston, damaged most of the homes in the Florida Keys and left millions without power. Follow here for live updates.

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Will $1,000 iPhone = $1 trillion value for Apple ?The tech giant is expected to unveil the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X at an event Tuesday, promising wireless charging, a better camera, a bigger screen and a much higher price.

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It's a big day for Apple.

The tech giant is expected to unveil the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X at an event Tuesday, promising wireless charging, a better camera, a bigger screen and a much higher price.

Wall Street is excited, fired up by leaks of Apple's plans before the event.

Apple's stock rose 1.8% on Monday, part of a broader market rally. Apple is up about 40% this year. The only stock in the Dow that's done better is Boeing , with a 55% gain.

Apple is just 2% below the all-time high that it set earlier this month. The company's market value is a staggering $835 billion. If the stock goes up 20% more, Apple will become the first public company worth $1 trillion.

Sure, CEO Tim Cook may face criticism if the company prices the highest-end version of the new iPhone at $1,000 or more, as rumored. Yet analysts think people will still be more than happy to shell out.

Related: Apple's big iPhone reveal -- here's what to expect

Wall Street forecasts that Apple's sales in the quarter that ends in December will be up more than 10% from a year ago and that earnings per share will increase nearly 15%.

And for Apple's next fiscal year, analysts think sales will rise 15% -- to $261.6 billion. Wall Street is predicting that earnings will be up more than 20% next year.

Simply put, increased iPhone sales should boost demand for Apple's Macs, revenue from Apple's iTunes music store and App Store and potentially even iPads and Apple Watches -- the proverbial iPhone halo effect.

Related: Christmas in September? Businesses prep for next iPhone

Macquarie Research analyst Benjamin Schachter wrote in a report Monday that he is in the so-called "super-cycle camp" regarding the iPhone.

"We expect the next iPhone to include innovations that will be clearly visible, marketable, and useful for the mass-market globally." he said in the report.

Despite these high hopes, Apple's stock still trades at a reasonable valuation of less than 15 times earnings forecasts for next year.

That's a discount to the broader market. The S&P 500 is valued at about 17 times estimates for 2018 earnings -- and profits are only expected to increase 11% next year.

Apple is even cheaper if you exclude the iNormous amount of cash it has on its balance sheet: $261 billion. That makes up nearly a third of Apple's overall market value.

Subtract that from the core (pardon the pun) Apple business, and Apple trades for a little more than 10 times earnings estimates for next year.

So even though there is a lot of pressure on Apple to deliver a phone that will eat into the market share of Samsung's Galaxy line and others running on the Google/Alphabet Android operating system, the stock is still reasonably priced.

And investors seem pretty confident that Apple's best days are still ahead.

CNNMoney (New York) First published September 11, 2017: 10:53 AM ET

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Will $1,000 iPhone = $1 trillion value for Apple?

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Apple's stock is soaring thanks to hopes that the next iPhone will lead to a big boost in sales and profits. If Apple keeps this up, the company could soon wind up with a market valuation that tops the $1 trillion level for the first time.