Hurricane Ian has swept up homes and displaced tens of thousands in a path of destruction from Cuba to Florida.
The storm made landfall in Cuba's Pinar del Rio early on Tuesday (local time), where 50,000 were forced to flee, and electricity was knocked out to the entire island of 11 million.
At least two people have died — a woman was killed by a falling wall, and a man whose roof collapsed on him.
No deaths were reported in the United States as of Wednesday (local time), but a boat carrying Cuban migrants sank on Wednesday off Key West.
The US Coast Guard initiated a search and rescue mission for 23 people after a migrant boat from Cuba capsized.
Three survivors were found three kilometres south of the Florida Keys, officials said.
Four other Cubans swam to Stock Island while air crews continued to search for possibly 20 remaining migrants.
"I spent the hurricane at home with my husband and the dog. The masonry and zinc roof of the house had just been installed. But the storm tore it down," said Mercedes Valdés, who lives along the highway connecting Pinar del Rio to San Juan y Martínez.
"We couldn't rescue our things … we just ran out."
Finca Robaina, one of Cuba's most prestigious tobacco farms, was lashed with wind, with photos on social media of wood-and-thatch roofs smashed to the ground, greenhouses in rubble and wagons overturned.
"Although the first impact is very painful, there's nothing to do but overcome the adversity," President Miguel Díaz-Canel said.
The storm had worked up to category four by the time it arrived on Florida's Gulf Coast on Wednesday (local time), with winds reaching 250 kph — just shy of the highest category.
It is the fifth-most-powerful storm in recent years to have pummelled Florida's Gulf Coast, trapping people who had defied orders to seek higher ground, and knocking out power for more than a million residents.
Earlier this week, more than 2.5 million residents were told to leave.
Doug Coe, of Venice, was one of those who chose to ignore warnings and stay put.
"You have to be vigilant because you never know what's going to happen with it," he said. "I'm staying vigilant, but trying not to worry."
Desperate people posted to Facebook and other social sites, pleading for rescue for themselves or loved ones.
Some video showed debris-covered water sloshing toward the eaves of homes.
The hurricane's centre passed over near Cayo Costa, a protected barrier island just west of heavily populated Fort Myers.
Water drained from Tampa Bay ahead of its approach.
Mark Pritchett stepped outside his home in Venice around the time the hurricane churned ashore from the Gulf of Mexico, about 56 kilometres to the south.
"I literally couldn't stand against the wind. Rain [was] shooting like needles," he said.
"My street is a river. Limbs and trees down. And the worst is yet to come," he said in a text message.
Hurricane Ian dropped to a category one storm hours after landfall.
However, the sprawling, slow-moving hurricane continues to unleash drenching rains as it moves inland, threatening to trigger extensive additional flooding.
Forecasters predict it will carry on as a tropical storm through Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, where governors have declared pre-emptive states of emergency.
In Charlotte County, just north of Fort Myers, a curfew was announced between 9pm and 6am "for life-saving purposes", County Sheriff Bill Prummell said.
He said violators of the curfew might face second-degree misdemeanour charges.
Thousands of flights have been cancelled, almost 2,000 were dropped on Thursday alone.
ABC/AP/Reuters
