1. As you probably know by now, Hurricane Ian was one of the most powerful storms to ever make landfall in Florida.
2. The pictures coming out of South Florida are straight-up catastrophic.
Florida Search & Rescue is on Fort Myers Beach right now trying to get to people who need help. Crews are on 3 boats. They tell me they had a report of someone trapped with several animals. Another person swimming suffering from a gash and hypothermia. Gonna be a long night.
3. And the storm surge is like nothing that area has ever really seen before.
Here is a time-lapse of the #StormSurge coming in on Sanibel Island, #Florida caught on a live traffic cam. This was only 30mins condensed down, it deteriorated quickly. 😬 #HurricaneIan #Hurricane #Ian
4. Storm surge is often the biggest issue with these huge storms.
*RARE* first person view of storm surge. This camera is 6 feet off the ground on Estero Blvd in Fort Myers Beach, FL. Not sure how much longer it keeps working. You’ll see it live only on @weatherchannel #Ian
5. And the videos coming from South Florida show just how powerful the storm surge was.
Heres another clip from the Downtown St.Augustine, #Florida livecam right now. As you can see the Matanzas River has completely flooded from #StormSurge caused by #HurricaneIan. #Hurricane #Ian
6. It rushed right in.
I've been capturing video from this webcam in Fort Myers all day and I've put it into a Timelapse. Check out the storm surge rushing in! Crazy. #Ian #flwx
7. The videos are truly unbelievable.
Insane! 😱 Check out this “Live Photo” of the storm surge from #Ian near Naples #FLwx Owner of this house had nothing left inside the house! It was completely emptied! #stormsurge #HurricaneIan @KNWAFOX24 @CharlesPeekWX @ReedTimmerAccu @spann @WFLAJB @WFLAamanda @NWSMiami
8. Houses were floating.
Storm surge outside of my moms house on Fort Myers Beach. I’m so sick.
9. Bridges were taken out.
BEFORE & AFTER. A glimpse of what is now the Sanibel Causeway post Ian.
10. "Really afraid of what we are going to see when the storm finally passes," said the chief meteorologist for FOX13 in Tampa.
Really afraid of what we are going to see when the storm finally passes. #Ian #FtMyers
11. And now we're seeing the damage the surge left.
Downtown Fort Myers …. Speechless. To the left is SOHO… almost unrecognizable. #hurricaneian #fortmyers #swfl #florida #stormsurge
12. In some places, there's not much left.
Fort Myers Beach pier and nearby restaurants and structures have been destroyed.
13. The Fort Myers Beach Pier used to look like this:
And now it looks like this:
14. It's devastating.
DEVASTATING. I was one of the few people that made it onto Fort Myers Beach this morning before it was shutdown. I have no words. @CBSMiami
15. The aerial shots are some of the only ways to see the extent of it all.
This morning Sheriff Carmine Marceno took a tour of Lee County to begin assessing damage caused by Hurricane Ian. We are devastated. Our hearts go out to every resident who is impacted. The Lee County Sheriffs Office is mobile and will stop at nothing to help our residents.
16. Debris everywhere.
17. Houses moved off their foundations.
18. There's just nothing left.
19. Boats in places they never should be.
20. This picture of a boat on top of a car shows just how much everything was tossed about.
21. See:
22. There really are boats everywhere.
23. A complete mess.
24. Highways have their pavement torn up.
From NBC2 livestream: Pavement scoured at the Sanibel Causeway in Florida as a result of #Ian. #flwx #HurricaneIan
25. This used to be a road:
26. Other roads look like scenes from The Walking Dead.
27. Upside-down cars.
28. Boats on the side of highways.
29. The surge brought those slabs of wood into the windshield of this car.
30. That's just someone's washing machine in the middle of the street.
31. Sand everywhere.
32. Just piles and piles of boats.
33. It's all just unrecognizable.
34. Like, it's hard to even make out what we're looking at.
