Hurricane Ian has reached a grim new landmark with 28 deaths resulting from it.

Sheriff Carmine Marceno of heavily hit Lee County confirmed 16 storm-related deaths on Friday.

He wrote on Twitter: “Our hearts go out to friends & family who lost their loved one in this tragic storm. We are here for you & we will get though this together."

Charlotte County Commissioner Christopher Constance confirmed to MSNBC seven deaths related to the storm.

Sarasota County has reported two hurricane-related deaths, and one death each has been reported in Osceola, Volusia and Polk Counties, according to officials.

In addition Sheriff Marceno confimed approximately 40 people were taken off Sanibel island, which has been cut off from the mainland after a road bridge collapsed on Thursday, 12 of whom were injured. The were all evacuated from the island by boat.

Officials working on rescue attempts have said the death toll is likely to rise as they discover the true extent of the hurricane's damage.

More than 300,000 people lost power on Friday as Hurricane Ian pushes its way North after making landfall for the third time near Georgetown, South Carolina this afternoon.

Over 211,000 customers in South Carolina are currently without power, 82,000 in North Carolina and outages have even reached further North in Virginia, where 11,000 homes were reportedly without electricity, according to poweroutage.us

They join approximately 1.7m in Florida who are also waiting to regain power after it had been knocked out by the powerful hurricane when it passed through the state on Wednesday and Thursday.

Ian is now a Tropical Storm, but it's still expected to produce strong winds, heavy rains, and storm surge across areas of Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas as of 5:00 a.m. EDT, according to National Hurricane Center.

Coastal water levels are still rising along the west coast of Florida, as life-threatening storm surge threatens Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.

Winds from the tropicals storm are expected to spread northward toward northeastern Florida, where hurricane conditions are possible.

More flooding will continue to slam parts of central Florida — with even considerable flooding to parts of northern Florida, parts of Georgia and South Carolina.

Many outlets report the storm has weakened into a Category 1 hurricane late Wednesday, though officials warned that it still remains a dangerous storm.

Hurricane Ian wreaked havoc on southwest Florida — trapping residents in flooded homes, damaging at least one hospital, and leaving over two million without power Wednesday before it was downgraded to a category 1 hurricane.

Ian made landfall over the Sunshine State as a category 4 storm with winds of up to 150 miles per hour — making it one of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit the country.

It left a path of destruction throughout the Gulf Coast, flooding neighborhoods, homes and buildings with its storm surge and heavy rains.

An emergency room inside ER of HCA Florida Fawcett Hospital in Port Charlotte was inundated with water as powerful winds tore through the facility’s roof — exposing its intensive care unit to the dangerous elements, according to a doctor at the hospital.

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During Wednesday's live broadcast of Hurricane Ian's destruction of Florida, Australian cameraman Glen Ellis dropped his camera to help a family escape the fierce winds and rising waters.

Footage captured the quick-thinking camera operator sprinting across a flooded street and guiding the misplaced family to safety on high ground.

"We're just helping some people through the water here," reporter Tim Lester told Australia's 7News television broadcast.

Ellis returned to his position behind the camera to finish the broadcast, shaking off the water to the praise of his coworker.

"Good work, Glen!" Lester said. "Glen rushing out there and helping some people in."

A group of good Samaritans saved an elderly man from floodwaters in Bonita Springs, Florida as Hurricane Ian struck the Sunshine State on Thursday.

The man was removed from his submerged car and carried to safety, according to a video posted to Instagram.

“We saw an elderly man struggling in his car and we knew he needed help,” a man identified as Benny from the Collier County Cowboys page said.

“The guys all maintained to grab the door and pry it open. He was a bit in shock so he didn’t want to let go so we assured him we were there to help him. The guys carefully picked him up out of the car, and brought him to shore, away from the current.”

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A time-lapse video of Hurricane Ian's impact captured the devastating storm surge gushing through a Fort Myers neighborhood Wednesday afternoon, flooding the streets.

The roadway of Estero Boulevard is transformed to a river over the course of the video compiled by journalist Brennan Prill.

The powerful winds take out a streetlight at one point as Ian brought gusts up to 155 miles per hour at its height.

Cuban officials said they had begun to restore some power following the powerful Tropical Storm Ian that knocked out power across the entire country.

The Energy and Mines Ministry announced they restored energy to three regions by activating two large power plants in Felton and Nuevitas.

Power and lights started to flicker in Havana — though, the majority of the city and other parts of western Cuba were still without power Wednesday.

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Hurricane Ian jolted a government "Hurricane Hunter" plane as it flew through the eye of the storm, sending objects crashing through the plane galley in what one storm-chaser called "the roughest flight of my career."

National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) aerospace engineer Nick Underwood shared bumpy footage from inside the Lockheed WP-3D Orion aircraft known as Kermit as it drove through Ian's path early Wednesday.

"When I say this was the roughest flight of my career so far, I mean it," Underwood tweeted. "I have never seen the bunks come out like that. There was coffee everywhere. I have never felt such lateral motion."

"I have flown storms for the last six years. This flight to Hurricane Ian on Kermit was the worst I've ever been on," he added. "I've never seen so much lightning in an eye."

Underwood has flown into the eye of a hurricane 76 times over his six-year career, according to the New York Times.

Naples Fire-Rescue Department were on the scene rescuing a driver stranded in waist-high flood waters in Naples.

The rescuer needed to break the back windows of his car before they were finally rescued by firefighters.

Hurricane Ian has been downgraded to a Category 1 storm, according to Fox Weather.

The hurricane is still battering Florida with winds gusts up to 90 miles per hour. Ian had been downgraded to a Category 2 hurricane about two hours earlier.

The storm is currently about 70 miles south of Orlando as it trudge's northeast across the state at around 8 miles per hour towards the Atlantic Ocean, where it is expected to continue north up the coast.

The Lee County Sheriff's Office's mobile command outreach center went fully mobile Wednesday night after floodwaters from Hurricane Ian sent the building floating down a street, video shows.

Video from the sheriff's office shows the rectangular drifting down an inundated roadway as massive wind gusts shake nearby palm trees.

Lee County includes the cities of Fort Meyers and Cape Coral, which took the hurricane head on when it made landfall earlier Wednesday.