NBC Boston meteorologist Chris Gloninger remains in Florida as residents and business owners deal with the destruction left behind from Hurricane Irma.
On Tuesday, Gloninger traveled to Marco Island where he reported on long gas lines and a resident whose house suffered signigicant damage. To compound matters, that resident did not have insurance to cover the damage.
Later in the evening Tuesday, Gloninger was in Miami where he said the recovery process is just starting. The skyline was partially lit up with some buildings without power.
After weakening into a tropical storm and finally leaving Florida on Monday, more than 6.7 million homes and businesses remained without power. More than 180,000 people were still in shelters.
According to Florida Gov. Rick Scott, it's too early to financially estimate the amount of damage done by the storm.
In Naples, where Gloninger and NBC Boston photographer Cary Patton are staying, the devastation was pretty severe.
Gloninger said there were about four dozen mobile homes that were either damaged or destroyed.
U.S. & World
On Monday night, one resident said the problem wasn't just the debris left behind from the storm — her family of 22 is now stuck without water, food or electricity.
"Life, you can't live life without no water or no food," she said.
Two streets over, resident Cindy Kelly said she was worried about her elderly neighbor and how she was going to survive with all the debris scattered around.
"I'm afraid that she's going to fall and I'm not going to be available to help her because I'm cleaning up," said Kelly.
In another area, Irma's winds first tore apart an elderly mobile home community, then flooded it.
Gloninger also went by a gas station where metal beams had bent at the base and collapsed part of the awning. At least one gas pump was destroyed by the storm.
Around midday Monday, Irma headed into Georgia and South Carolina, causing more flooding and power outages.
So far, five deaths in Florida have been blamed on Irma, along with two in Georgia and one in South Carolina. Another 34 people were killed in the Caribbean.
