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A week after Hurricane Ian, parts of Florida are still devastated.
On the island of Sanibel Island off Fort Myers, the damage is so severe that it is unclear when it will be habitable again.
US President Joe Biden got an idea of the situation on site on Wednesday and promised people permanent help.
Joe Biden, US President
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We are thinking of you and we will not leave.
We won't leave until this is done, I promise you.
You know, walking around in what's left of Fisherman's Wharf, it doesn't take a lot of imagination to understand that everything, everything, this historic, gigantic, unimaginable storm just ripped it to pieces.
You have to start from scratch.
And that will take a very, very long time.
It won't be weeks or months, it will be years before all is well in the state of Florida.”
"Ian" made landfall in Florida last week as a category four of five hurricane.
Dozens of people were killed during his trek across the southern US state.
US media assume at least 80 dead.
Rescue workers are still searching for missing people in the flooded areas.
Inacio Carroll, police officer
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So, let's go down a block like this, for example.
There's a lot of destruction there, a lot of collapsed houses, a lot of rubble.
With a house like this, we would go to the door, see, and call if anyone was home.
If no one is home, we mark the building as a building still standing.
For a house collapse like this, we would try to do a quick assessment and if no one came forward, we would mark it as a full house collapse.
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During his visit to Fort Myers, Democrat Joe Biden also met with Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
The two are political opponents.
DeSantis is being traded alongside ex-President Donald Trump as a possible Republican presidential candidate.
In the past, both had clashed over various issues, including COVID-19 vaccines, climate change, abortion and LGBTQ rights.
But in the disaster area, the politicians are united.
Joe Biden, US President
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You know, today we have one job and one job only, and that's to make sure the people of Florida have everything they need to make a full and thorough recovery.
We're one of the few nations in the world that comes out of a crisis better than we went in, and we're going to do that this time too, come out better, because that's the United States of America.
And I emphasize: united.«
Expect these hurricanes to get really bad, DeSantis said when he appeared with Biden.
However, this often does not happen at all.
In the case of Hurricane Ian, however, the worst fears came true.