CLOSE Hurricane Irma took aim at heavily populated areas of central Florida on Monday as it carved a path of destruction through the state. Video provided by Reuters Newslook 
 
 Roofing and siding litter the streets at Naples Estates trailer park in East Naples, Fla., on Sept. 11, 2017. (Photo: Rodney White, The Register via the USA TODAY Network) 
 
 MIAMI — Mighty, massive Irma finally weakened, chainsaws buzzed and 30,000 utility workers scrambled to restore power to battered Florida on Monday as the state slowly came back to life amid the devastation of the historic storm. 
 
 Irma, which smashed onto the state Sunday as a Category 4 hurricane with 130-mph winds, weakened to a tropical storm Monday after hammering the state with roof-ripping winds and driving rain. 
 
 The sun peeked out over much of the state, but Irma wasn't finished. Gushing floodwaters paralyzed wide areas. Downed trees, power lines and other storm debris blocked roads across the state. 
 
 Florida's Emergency Response Team said 65% of utility customers were without power early Monday. Every county from Key West to the Georgia line was affected. White House national security adviser Tom Bossert, speaking in Washington, urged evacuees not to go home until they are told it is safe to do so. 
 
 "We can have power down in homes for ... weeks," Bossert said. "This isn't over yet." 
 
 More: Hurricane Irma: Where it is now and what we know 
 
 Hurricane Irma: Complete coverage from the USA TODAY Network 
 
 Gov. Rick Scott visited storm-ravaged parts of the state Monday, telling reporters that what he saw was "horrible." 
 
 Scott warned that storm surge was causing record flooding in Jacksonville and other cities in northeastern Florida. Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry asked residents who are safe to let friends and family members know. 
 
 "We are getting calls asking about loved ones," Curry tweeted. 
 
 The Florida Keys took a severe beating. Irma ripped through the island chain hours before its second landfall Sunday on Marco Island. The storm roared north, wide enough to lash both coasts with wind, rain and ominous floodwaters. Millions evacuated ahead of the storm, and more than 585 shelters across the state were housing more than 200,000 people Monday. 
 
 Four “last resort” shelters set up in the Keys will become more permanent, with services such as food and supply distribution. Scott flew over the area and said flood damage was extensive. Water and sewer systems weren't working and there was no power. 
 
 "My heart goes out to the people in the Keys," Scott said. "I just hope everybody survived. It's horrible what we saw." 
 
 In Everglades City, on the Gulf Coast 30 miles east of Marco Island, trees were toppled and storm fronts blown out. Parts of the city were underwater after a storm surge as high as 8 feet. 
 
 "I've never seen it this bad," said Lee Kidder, manager of the Captain's Table hotel and restaurant, where water swamped his downstairs apartments and trees smashed the pool patio. "But it could have been way worse." 
 
 Naples, 15 miles north of Marco Island, fared a bit better. Crews saw no major structural damage and only minimal flooding in their initial post-storm tours, Mayor Bill Barnett said. 
 
 “Everything is preliminary, but the real bright side — if there is one — is that we didn’t get 15 feet of storm surge,” Barnett said. “That would have been catastrophic.” 
 
 One Naples man died as an indirect result of the storm, however. Evacuee Richard Koff, 91, was walking through an Interstate 75 rest area in Georgia when he was the victim of a fatal hit-and-run crash Sunday. 
 
 Utilities warned that it could take weeks to fully restore electricity to the state's 21 million people. The Florida HIghway Patrol was escorting utility convoys around the state, and more than 30,000 workers were laboring to restore power. 
 
 At 11 p.m. ET Monday, the storm was centered about 95 miles south by southwest of Atlanta, driving maximum sustained winds of 35 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. Irma was forecast to continue to weaken as it rolled through Georgia and beyond Tuesday. 
 
 Georgia was reporting power outages for almost 600,000 homes and businesses Monday; South Carolina had almost 100,000 outages. 
 
 Still, many areas were expecting worse than they got. 
 
 The Tampa-St. Petersburg metro area had braced for a direct hit that never quite came. Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, saying the local storm surge apparently will not be as bad as feared, lifted the city curfew Monday. 
 
 "We really dodged a bullet," Buckhorn said. 
 
 Miami-Dade County, spared a direct hit when Irma spun west, still was staggered. About 80% of homes lost power and many roads remained impassable, but lifelong residents who know what hurricanes can do knew they'd been spared. 
 
 "This is great for us, but bad for the west coast," said Alex Silva, 41, who was using a machete and a rake to clear the street outside his Coral Gables home Monday morning. 
 
 "I would feel like a jerk if I didn't get out and do something to help," Silva said. 
 
 Miami International Airport hoped to reopen for limited passenger service Tuesday. Irma's high winds pushed water through window seals and roof joints, causing minor flooding through the sprawling complex. Even the war room where airport managers met Monday morning was damaged by water. 
 
 "Nobody wants to get planes in and out more than me," CEO Emilio Gonzalez said. "But we can't just flip a switch." 
 
 In Palm Bay, 175 miles north of MIami, Irma's howling winds punched a hole in the roof of The Shack Seafood Restaurant, tossing the screened porch atop the building like a folded pancake. Jean Zemkoski, who has owned the restaurant for 46 years, was concerned that employees might be without work for weeks. 
 
 "When we left, everything was secure," said . "I came back this morning and this is what I see." 
 
 In Western North Carolina, almost 13,000 residents were without power Monday night as a result of the storm. The residents represented more than half of the 22,000 Duke Energy customers who did not have power as of 7:30 p.m. ET Sunday, according to Duke Energy. 
 
 Gomez reported from Miami, Bacon from McLean, Va. Contributing: Trevor Hughes, USA TODAY; Arek L. Sarkissian, Tallahassee Democrat; Joseph Cranney, Brett Murphy, and Tim Aten, Naples Daily News; Rick Neale and Dave Berman, Florida Today; Nicole Rodriguez, The Stuart (Fla.) News; Jennifer Bowman, Asheville Citizen-Times 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2xYNpmQ ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| (CNN) North Korea has warned the United States that it will pay a "due price" if harsh sanctions against the country are agreed at a United Nations Security Council meeting on Monday. 
 
 North Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement published on state media that if the US "does rig up the illegal and unlawful 'resolution'" it would respond in kind. 
 
 The Security Council is due to vote in New York on a US-drafted resolution to impose new restrictions on the rogue state following its sixth and largest nuclear test, carried out just over a week ago. 
 
 "The DPRK is ready and willing to use any form of ultimate means," the statement said, referring to the country by its acronym. 
 
 "The forthcoming measures to be taken by the DPRK will cause the US the greatest pain and suffering it had ever gone through in its entire history." 
 
 US puts forward another draft resolution 
 
 The US put forward another draft resolution Monday that made considerable changes to a previous version of the proposal. 
 
 The latest draft removes a call for a full oil embargo on the country and omits the freezing of assets and a call for a travel ban for North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un. The new draft also softens its language on foreign workers and other issues. 
 
 A previously circulated version of the US resolution called for a full ban on exports of oil to North Korea and an asset freeze on Kim, the Worker's Party and government of North Korea. 
 
 The Security Council vote is expected on Monday early evening ET. 
 
 The Reuters news agency reported Monday that the initial US proposals had been watered down, citing a new version of the draft resolution. The report also said that the sanctions had been softened to appease China and Russia, citing diplomats. 
 
 Russia and China both have veto power in the vote as permanent members of the Security Council. Both had expressed skepticism over the strict sanctions. 
 
 China -- North Korea's most powerful ally -- said Monday that it supported the Security Council's plan for a "further response" to North Korea and to take "necessary actions." 
 
 "We hope UNSC members will come to a consensus through full consultations and will send out the voice of unity and solidarity," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said at regular press conference Monday. 
 
 "The UNSC's response and actions should be helpful to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and to maintaining the stability of the region. And also helpful to solve the North Korea issue peacefully," Geng said. 
 
 The US and its allies have been calling for stern measures against North Korea since the September 3 nuclear test. 
 
 The test sent powerful tremors across the region, suggesting the device used was the most powerful the nation has ever tested. Pyongyang claims it tested a hydrogen bomb capable of sitting atop a ballistic missile. 
 
 JUST WATCHED The weapon that makes N. Korea more dangerous Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH The weapon that makes N. Korea more dangerous 01:12 
 
 Pyongyang celebrates 
 
 Despite the impending vote on potentially painful economic sanctions, the atmosphere in Pyongyang over the weekend was one of celebration. 
 
 North Korea commemorated the 69th anniversary of its founding on Saturday, holding large patriotic displays of dancing and devotion to the Kim family. 
 
 Speaking to CNN reporters, North Koreans on the street appeared unconcerned about further sanctions and threats of military action from the United States. 
 
 Participation in mass celebrations is mandatory for privileged citizens allowed to live in the capital #InsideNorthKorea A post shared by Will Ripley (@willripleycnn) on Sep 9, 2017 at 1:42am PDT 
 
 "We know the Americans may come back with many more sanctions but in response we Koreans will continue shooting up many more missiles and conducting many more H-bomb tests," North Korean shop assistant Han Myong Sim told CNN's Will Ripley. 
 
 "We don't worry very much," said another shop worker, Ri Jong Ok. "As long as we have Kim Jong Un, we'll survive." 
 
 NEW: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hosts glitzy gala for nuclear scientists, shows first video of purported H-bomb test A post shared by Will Ripley (@willripleycnn) on Sep 10, 2017 at 4:20am PDT 
 
 Among the celebrations was a gala event in honor of North Korea's nuclear scientists, who successfully conducted the country's sixth nuclear test 
 
 North Korean leader Kim attended the glitzy event himself, where footage purportedly showing the explosion was played, accompanied by a full string orchestra. 
 
 Merkel calls for Iran-like deal 
 
 Speaking on Monday, South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said North Korea's nuclear arsenal was "the biggest challenge to our foreign affairs and security front and will continue to be so for many years to come." 
 
 But Kang added both the US and South Korea believed in following a policy of "responding firmly (to) provocations through tough sanctions while leaving the door open for dialogue." 
 
 Over the weekend, leaders in Germany and France waded into the escalating crisis. 
 
 German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in an interview with a German newspaper she would "immediately say yes" if Germany was asked to help end the crisis. 
 
 She said an agreement similar to the Iranian nuclear deal struck under the Obama administration could be the solution. Under the deal, Iran agreed to scale back its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. 
 
 "I could imagine such a format being used to end the North Korea conflict. Europe and especially Germany should be prepared to play a very active part in that," Merkel told Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in an interview published Sunday. 
 
 French President Emmanuel Macron spoke on the phone with US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday to discuss the possibility of new sanctions. 
 
 "(They discussed) a firm and united reaction towards North Korea's repeated provocations as it is a threat to world peace and security," the Elysee Palace told CNN.
– Good riddance, Hurricane Irma. The storm was downgraded to a still-powerful tropical storm Monday morning in northern Florida as it moved toward Georgia and other southeastern states, reports USA Today. Irma still had winds of 70mph, along with pounding rain, and nearly 6 million people across Florida remained without power, reports CNN. As of 8am, Irma was about 100 miles north of Tampa. Authorities in Florida asked people to continue sheltering in place so they could clean up streets and assess damage. "Stay off the roads, stay off the streets, let us complete our assessment, clear the roads of water, power lines, trees and then you can get out there and determine what happened to your individual property or your neighborhood," said Fort Lauderdale Mayor Jack Seiler. Storm surge will continue to be a concern in Florida throughout Monday, and utilities warned it could be weeks before power is fully restored across the state. Much concern had been raised about Tampa, and while the city woke to flooded streets and downed trees, the early sense is that things were nowhere near as bad as once feared, reports TampaBay.com.