The big clear-up operation is continuing for ex-pat Manx residents living in Florida following the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Irma.

Among them is Marc Harrison, wife Catherine and daughter Daisy who have been living there for five years now running Exclusive Orlando Villa Rentals - a property management service around the Disney area in Orlando.

They look after a number of properties owned by Manx residents there. On Sunday the Harrisons rescued the Lee family from Peel who were staying in a villa at Cape Coral on the south west coast and needed to evacuate due to fears of a storm surge.

Marc said: ’I never expected it to be as bad as it was.

’Today was mostly spent assessing more properties for damage - a number of them owned by Manx residents.’

Hurricane Irma made landfall on the lower Florida Keys on Sunday and left a trail of destruction along the state’s Gulf Coast. Millions heeded warnings to evacuate their homes.

A wind gust of 130 mph was reported by police on Marco Island where Irma made a second landfall at 3.35pm.

The hurricane caused more than two million power outages and lashed major population centres with driving rain and roof-rattling wind.

Fortunately, a last-minute detour inland as it churned up the west coast of Florida meant that the threatened storm surge was not as devastating as it could have been.

Irma was downgraded to a tropical hurricane but remained dangerous as it approaches the densely populated Tampa Bay area

It took a parting shot at Florida on Monday, triggering severe flooding in the state’s northeast corner.

At least 10 people have lost their lives from Florida to South Carolina during the storm, most of them in vehicle accidents. The Florida Keys was described as looking like a ’war zone’.