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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 caused at least 11 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 will be permitted to return at 8 a.m. today.
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 told ABC News 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 said.
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."
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.
In Abbeville County, South Carolina, a 57-year-old man was killed after a tree limb fell on him.
At least 37 others died from Irma in the Caribbean, including at least 10 in Cuba.
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."
About 6.5 million Floridians had been ordered to evacuate as Irma neared, and some residents of Georgia and South Carolina were under evacuation orders as well.
Some chose to go to shelters, while others decided to hunker down at home to ride out the storm.
A Naples resident told ABC News she was turned away from two shelters before she and her 10-year-old son were finally accepted at one.
"We have a dog and there were not that many shelters that accepted dogs," she said, adding, "We didn't want to be that far away from our home." While she and her son stay inside the shelter, her husband is hunkering down with their dog at home.
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 from Hurricane Irma," state officials said.
Gov. Scott said nearly 30 states had deployed personnel and resources to help with the response to Irma.
