Florida Rep. Carlos Curbelo said Tuesday that while it is not yet safe to return to the Florida Keys region after Hurricane Irma, "the structural damage was not what I anticipated."
"A lot of the structures are looking a lot better than I had expected," the second-term Republican, 37, whose district includes the Keys, told Wolf Blitzer on CNN. "The structural damage was not as catastrophic as many predicted.
"A lot of people will have to do work on their homes or properties."
Irma slammed the Florida Keys early Sunday as a Category 4 hurricane, before it was downgraded to Category 2 by the National Hurricane Center.
Federal Emergency Management Agency officials estimated as many as 25 percent of all dwellings in the Keys were destroyed and 6.7 million Floridians were without power Tuesday.
Irma's death toll climbed to 43 in the Caribbean on Tuesday, along with at least 13 more killed in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.
Curbelo, who toured the area by plane Tuesday, told Blitzer the biggest challenge for the Keys will be rebuilding its tourism industry.
"We have tourists visitors from all over the world coming to the Florida Keys," he said. "You have a lot of people working in hotels and restaurants and bars.
"For those people to be without paid for weeks and months is going to put a lot of financial stress on a lot of individuals and families."