As a mighty hurricane, Irma inspired fear. As a tropical storm, it is spreading soggy distress — and continuing peril — across a growing swath of the American Southeast.
     In what could be a long and messy afterlife, it will tax the patience of millions.
     On Monday, a day after visiting lashing rains, surging tides and terrifying winds on nearly every corner of Florida, Irma unleashed flash flooding in three states and left a sweaty, disruptive legacy: no power for about 7 million people.
     Confronting a panorama of destruction stretching from coast to coast, with rescue efforts still in progress and a massive cleanup only beginning to gather pace, Florida and federal officials opted for frankness: It might take weeks for electricity to be fully restored.
     The storm's direct death toll, mercifully, was not commensurate with Irma's wrath. Authorities in Georgia on Monday reported three storm-related deaths, without providing details, and one person died in South Carolina. An electrocution was reported in central Florida — a grim hazard in flooding's aftermath. Irma is being blamed for 34 deaths in the Caribbean before it hit Florida, according to the Associated Press.
     With power cut for about 6.5 million Floridians and hundreds of thousands of others in Georgia and South Carolina, restoring electricity was an urgent priority, but authorities warned that the fixes wouldn't happen overnight.