Residents return to find their homes gone, towns devastated in Idalia path

Several roads were blocked due to fallen trees. Pic/AP

Hurricanes and tropical storms are nothing new in the South, but the sheer magnitude of damage from Idalia has shocked residents in several areas. The storm first made landfall on Wednesday in Florida, where it razed homes and downed power poles. It then swung northeast, slamming Georgia, flooding many of South Carolina's beaches and sending seawater into the streets of downtown Charleston. In North Carolina it poured more than 23 cm of rain on Whiteville, which flooded downtown buildings.

Thousands of utility line workers rushed to restore power in Florida but nearly 95,000 customers were still without electricity on Friday morning. The storm had moved away from the US coast early Thursday and spun out into the Atlantic, still packing winds of 97 kmph on Friday. It could hit Bermuda on Saturday, bringing heavy rainfall and potential flash flooding to the island, according to the US National Hurricane Center.

Meanwhile, residents along the path of destruction returned to pick through piles of rubble that used to be homes. Desmond Roberson took a drive through Valdosta on Thursday with a friend to check out damage after the storm, which first hit Florida as a hurricane and then weakened into a tropical storm as it made its way north, ripped through the town of 55,000.

On one street, he said, a tree had fallen on nearly every house. Roads remained blocked by tree trunks and downed power lines, and traffic lights were still blacked out at major intersections. "It's a maze," Roberson said. "I had to turn around three times, just because roads were blocked off."

Biden wants $4 billion more for disaster fund

The White House will seek an additional $4 billion to address natural disasters as part of its supplemental funding request - a sign that wildfires, flooding and hurricanes that have intensified during a period of climate change are imposing ever higher costs on US taxpayers.

The Biden administration initially sought $12 billion in extra funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief fund. But an official said that the fires in Hawaii and Louisiana, as well as flooding in Vermont and Hurricane Idalia striking Florida and other states mean that a total of $16 billion is needed.

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