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Florida’s Big Bend region is picking up the pieces after Hurricane Idalia tore through the area leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

Coming ashore Wednesday morning as a category 3 storm, Idalia packed a punch with winds of 125 miles per hour and caused more than $9 billion in damage while leaving a half-million people without power. Despite the devastation, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is grateful it wasn’t as deadly as last year’s Hurricane Ian.

Ian ripped through the Fort Myers area last September killing 149 people.  Idalia caused only one death – when a tree fell on a man in Georgia as the storm tore through that state later in the day.

DeSantis says restoring power is now the state’s top priority. Thankfully, the recovery effort appears to be going well, with airports starting to reopen last night.

Thursday morning, Idalia, by then a tropical storm, was over North Carolina.