It's nightfall in Florida and South Carolina, and we are pausing our live coverage of the storm.

Here are the latest developments:

• Ian is no longer a hurricane, after weakening significantly to a post-tropical cyclone since making landfall - but the danger is far from over
• Flooding continues in Florida, as rescue crews and residents take stock of the billions of dollars in damages
• Some evacuees are returning home to find shattered neighbourhoods and drastically altered landscapes
• As the storm moves north, the state of South Carolina is in the crosshairs with storm surges and rainfall causing flooding in coastal cities

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from Florida

In downtown Fort Myers, one man and his wife have taken it upon themselves to feed the community.

The centre part of the city is still largely a ghost town. Small groups of people are walking the streets to survey the damage. The only activity seems to be police officers and workers clearing the debris.

Also buzzing with activity is Bruno's of Brooklyn, an Italian eatery.

Here, Cal Bruno and his wife, Genevieve, are offering pasta - free of charge - to their friends and neighbours in the community.

They opened as soon as they came back to the restaurant. On Thursday, they fed 500 people. On Friday, the total is somewhere in the 1,200 range. As I enter the restaurant, it is packed and some are even eating outside, despite the hot sun.

"People around here are devastated," Cal tells me after inviting me behind the counter to the kitchen. "The least I could do was give them some pasta."

"I've got another property that had four feet of water in it," he adds. "It's in bad shape. But I had to help."

For the time being, Cal plans to keep going. He had stockpiled pasta just in case. He did the same five years ago when Hurricane Irma struck.

I want to talk to Cal more - but, he tells me, he's only got a few minutes. There are hungry people waiting to be fed.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from Florida

Image source, Getty Images

Even as life slowly returns back to something resembling normality in hurricane-stricken Florida, some people are still in a desperate search for their loved ones.

One woman, Synthia Fairman, tells us that she's been frantically searching for her uncle, who had been living as a homeless man on the streets of Fort Myers.

"Where do the homeless even go? We even emailed the medical examiner photos of him," she said, choking back tears.

Her uncle, she added, suffers from schizophrenia. The last time she saw him was three months ago at a bus stop. She briefly convinced him to come home before he ran off.

"What do we do with people like that? The shelters are overloaded. There are so many people with Covid in the shelter too, but that's the least of our worries."

Synthia says her uncle is only one part of the last few days that have made her "literally sick with worry".

"I'm adopted and they've lost all our foster care paperwork too. And I've got a childcare agency and all the babies have been screaming," she added. "And I dislocated my knee [during the storm]."

"We're all going to have PTSD from this storm."

As Hurricane Ian neared Florida on Wednesday, one picture temporarily lifted a lot of spirits across the region.

A flock of flamingos from Sunken Gardens, a botanical park in the Gulf Coast city of St Petersburg, had been moved to a bathroom to be safer during the storm.

"We're hunkered down!" the zoo tweeted from its official account, adding that the flamingos "are having a hurricane party" complete with big bowls of food and water.

The photo brought back memories of a similar shot from Hurricane Andrew's assault on Florida in 1992.

During his time working for Zoo Miami, photographer Ron Magill took a picture of flamingos hiding in a bathroom to ride out the storm.

Asked for his reaction to the new viral image, Magill said: “Good move! Proven life-saving move for flamingos!”

Image source, Getty Images

Although Ian has been downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone, the danger is far from over.

According to the National Hurricane Center, central Florida could see record river flooding into next week.

Considerable flash and urban flooding is possible across coastal and north-east South Carolina, coastal North Carolina and south-east Virginia on Friday.

There's also a chance Ian could spawn tornadoes in North Carolina and Virginia as it continues to march north.

John Sudworth
Reporting from Florida

Fort Myers beach was the one of the first places to meet the power of Hurricane Ian.

Two days on, residents like Pat and Kathleen Unger are only now returning to their homes.

The couple have an apartment in a block close to the beach.

“Elevator’s gone, pool sheds are gone, office is gone, the library’s gone,” Kathleen tells me.

"Parking lot's gone, everything’s gone except for the buildings,” Pat adds.

“It looks like three buildings standing in the middle of the Sahara Desert.”

A short distance away, people are helping with the clean-up effort at a popular local restaurant, Doc’s Beach House.

The contents of the ground floor have all been swept away by storm surge and the concrete deck area has been turned into rubble.

I meet Suzie Mack, walking along the beach surveying the damage.

Her house is a few miles away and she says she was able to watch the hurricane blow through in relative safety.

But she’s heard about a far more frightening experience on the mobile home park where her brother lives.

“There were about 20 people who stayed in their mobile homes and the water came in because their surge went up about eight feet,” she tells me.

“So, they got on their air mattresses inside their house, because it was too late to leave, and by the time the surge got to its peak, they had about a foot of air left in their homes.”

“Nobody died there, but it was a horrific story to hear,” she adds.

Although devastating for those affected, most of the serious damage is in small, localised pockets along Florida’s gulf coast.

Ian was a category four hurricane, with the kind of wind speeds – 150 miles an hour and above - that scientists say are becoming more common with warming sea temperatures.

But it lost power quickly as it came ashore, and the authorities are now making clear that fears there may be as-yet-unaccounted for deaths have not been borne out so far.

Nada Tawfik
Reporting from Florida

Image source, Reuters

Not far from here at Fort Myers beach, emergency responders posted a video of a man who was rescued under the rubble of a restaurant.

What we have heard is they are in this 72-hour period where they first did that primary initial search looking for anybody in a desperate situation.

They are now going back to that initial search, being more thorough to see if anyone else was trapped, and sadly if there were any bodies to be found in those homes submerged under water - now that the water has cleared out.

We do know that there are 21 fatalities - one confirmed, but 20 unconfirmed. Death can only be confirmed once the state medical examiner determines the death was directly related to the storm.

The devastating storm surge, those 150 mph winds has basically decimated the beaches here. President Biden has ordered federal aid to help with the recovery efforts and the rebuilding. We are not just talking about homes, but key infrastructure. Even people with personal damage can try to seek relief.

Many residents here that we've been speaking to are counting how lucky they and their families are. They have never seen a storm this bad in an area quite used to hurricanes.

The recovery is likely to take years, but for those that are looking at their homes and whether to rebuild, a key part of that is how much of it will be covered by their insurance and how much of the cost they will have to pay out of pocket.

Hurricane Ian has been downgraded from a category one hurricane and is now a post-tropical cyclone, the National Hurricane Center says.

It is expected to weaken further overnight.

It is about 20 miles (35km) north-west of Myrtle Beach and has maximum sustained winds of 70 miles per hour (110 km/h).

Storm surges, flash flooding and high winds remain dangerous, officials say.

Here's the latest:

• After causing massive destruction in Florida, Hurricane Ian has made a second landfall, crashing into the coast of South Carolina as a category one hurricane
• Forecasters are predicting a storm surge and severe flooding, with coastal areas around the city of Charleston likely to feel the brunt
• President Joe Biden has said Hurricane Ian is likely to be among the worst in US history and called it “an American crisis”. He has approved an emergency declaration for South Carolina, which means recovery funds can be sent more quickly
• In Florida, where Hurricane Ian left a devastating trail, rescue workers and US military personnel have been searching for survivors. A rescue operation is under way involving more than 1,000 dedicated personnel who are travelling up and down the coastline
• The state's top disaster official says at least 21 people may have died, but exact casualty figures are still being determined
• Millions have been left without power and drinking water, while many homes have been completely destroyed. A Florida disaster fund has now raised more than $12m (£10.7m)

As we've been reporting, Hurricane Ian has now hit the US for the second time, bringing storm surges and flooding to South Carolina.

Areas near the coast are seeing the ocean rise, while further inland rains have swollen creeks and rivers and brought flooding to low-lying areas.

Forecasters have predicted that Hurricane Ian will weaken rapidly now that it has made landfall, but officials in South Carolina remain prepared for the storm recovery.

"This storm is not as bad as it could have been, but don't let your guard down yet," Governor Henry McMaster said.

About 90 National Guard troops and 11 helicopters have been deployed to support search and rescue operations in the state.

More than 2,000 state employees are also on the ground and have already cleared hundreds of downed trees.

Power outages have been reported for more than 180,000 residents as well as 50,000 people in neighbouring North Carolina.

Residents have been advised to avoid travel and those in low-lying areas were told to seek refuge on higher ground.

Federal disaster officials are warning that Hurricane Ian will lash North and South Carolina with life-threatening storm surges, damaging winds and flash flooding before it weakens.

National Weather Service Director Ken Graham says the hurricane is very large, with its winds extending about 70 miles (112km) from its centre.

Storm surges may be between four to seven feet in some places, he says. “That’s not just on the beach. That sneaks up rivers. That sneaks up canals.”

Graham reiterates that "it's dangerous after the storm too" and people should avoid being out on the roads.

Anne Bink, the assistant administrator at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), earlier told reporters that Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas had activated a 7,500-member surge capacity force to boost recovery efforts from Hurricane Ian.

"I want to remind everyone that this storm is not over yet," Bink said. "Just because the skies are clear does not mean it's safe."

This is the second time Hurricane Ian has made landfall in the US, this time in the coastal town of Georgetown, South Carolina.

Maximum sustained winds remain around 85mph (140km/ph), according to the National Hurricane Center.

But Ian is expected to weaken rapidly over the next few hours, transitioning overnight into a post-tropical cyclone and dissipating over either North Carolina or Virginia by late on Saturday.

Currently moving north, Ian is set to turn north-west shortly as it moves inland across eastern South Carolina, reaching central North Carolina by Saturday.

Hurricane Ian has made landfall in South Carolina.

After weakening across land, it regained its hurricane strength as it moved into the Atlantic Ocean before hitting the South Carolina coastline a moment ago.

Forecasters have been predicting the historic city of Charleston is likely to feel the brunt.

Image source, Reuters

President Joe Biden said Hurricane Ian is likely to be among the worst in US history.

"We're just beginning to see the scale of that destruction," he said in live remarks from the White House.

He said "everyone is working together" as one to serve Americans impacted by Hurricane Ian.

The president pledged that 100% of disaster relief in Florida will be covered under the emergency declarations he made earlier this week.

He also promised residents of Puerto Rico, a US territory that is still reeling from last week's Hurricane Fiona, that his government will "stay with it, stay at it, as long as it takes".

"We know if it was us who had just lost our homes or a loved one, we know people would show up to help us as well," he said.

Image source, Getty Images

Ocean waves are getting bigger near Myrtle Beach as the storm surge begins and Ian prepares to make landfall in South Carolina.

Pictures on social media show beaches completely flooded past the dunes, and starting to reach buildings.

Hurricane Ian's arrival coincides with high tide for the area.

A gauge, external on a pier in the area operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (Noaa) says that the water level reached over 10ft (3 meters), and was rising at nearly 1ft per hour since 06:00 local time this morning.

Myrtle Beach is one of the most popular beach destinations on the US East Coast. It sits in a 60-mile stretch of beachfront known as the Grand Strand. Around 350,000 people reside in the area, but that population falls by tens of thousands during the off-season.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from Florida

Next to what was once a small marina on the Caloosahatchee River in Fort Myers, more than a dozen boats are strewn around - mostly in places they aren't supposed to be.

A sailboat rests on its side against a palm tree, 30ft (9m) or so from the water. Nearby, severely damaged larger yachts - the type used for fishing charters - lie crammed together.

There are perhaps 30 destroyed boats here in total, although it's hard to tell. Some have been reduced to pieces of wood and fibreglass bobbing in the water. Others have sunk.

"I'm in the boat business," a visibly upset man tells me. "Well, actually, I guess I was in the boat business, past tense. I've got to start getting that right now."

Image source, Getty Images

President Joe Biden says Democrats and Republicans are working closely together, "making sure we do everything we can" to support recovery efforts after Hurricane Ian.

"Whatever it takes, we're going to be there as one nation and one America," Biden said at a White House event to mark the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah.

"We're not going to walk away."

Biden, a Democrat, spoke on Friday morning for a second time with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican.

His top disaster official, Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Deanne Criswell, has been meeting with DeSantis and top officials in his state over the past few hours.

Biden and DeSantis have publicly clashed on a number of issues, most notably immigration, in recent months.

But the governor has thanked the administration for its support on recovery efforts.

The White House says that Biden has also been in touch this morning with South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster, another Republican, "to provide whatever assistance the people of South Carolina need".

Ian is set to make a second US landfall on the South Carolina coast later today.

As we reported earlier, Hurricane Ian is projected to turn into an extratropical low later today.

While tropical storms have the potential to grow into hurricanes, extratropical storms do not.

Extratropical cyclones are low pressure systems that have cold air at their core.

They can occur over land or sea, and can have winds as weak as a tropical depression or as strong as a hurricane.

Blizzards and Nor'easters are two common forms of extratropical cyclones.