FORT MYERS, Fla. — Joy McCormack stood across the road from a stretch of mobile homes, townhouses, and condos now completely covered in knee-deep flood waters. 

She watched her neighbors wade to and from their homes, hoping to salvage something from the wreckage. She wondered how her home in the nearby Iona Ranch mobile home had fared after Hurricane Ian, but knew the devastation likely took it as well. 

“I think mine is going to be a total loss,” McCormack said. “It’s the only house I have and if it’s gone…” 

She trailed off.

For Mitch Stough and his brother Mike, Fort Myers Beach was their livelihood. Now, it’s been utterly destroyed.

“It’s leveled,” Mitch told The News-Press, part of the USA TODAY Network.

Fort Myers Beach, along with Lee County’s other barrier islands, took the brunt of Hurricane Ian’s assault on Florida’s coastline. The storm, a Category 4 when it made landfall, sent 150 mph winds and a towering storm surge tearing through the town’s center.

Fort Myers, boasting a population of more than 92,000, is a popular city for tourists and spring breakers. The nearby small coastal town of Fort Myers Beach, filled with beach-side bars and hotels and resorts, sits on skinny Estero Island, making it more vulnerable as Ian pounded the region. The town has a population of nearly 6,000. 

The cities and towns there were some of the first areas to receive a lashing from the storm. Other areas of the state are still seeing heavy rains and haven’t broken free of Ian’s grip yet. Local officials and President Joe Biden say the storm is likely to be historically deadly and costly.

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Mitch and Mike Stough sheltered on the third floor of the Estero Island Beach Club, where Mike worked. From there, they had a front-row view of the chaos. Waves poured over Estero Boulevard, demolishing the lower floors of buildings and carrying away vehicles, they said. Their car went flying.

Mitch, who worked at the landmark Lani Kai resort, said the storm surge stripped the vacation spot’s first floor to its structural elements.

“There’s nothing there,” he said. “Fort Myers Beach is gone.”

A couple of miles out, boats could be seen thrown against road guardrails, ripped from their storage yards the previous night. Closer to the Matanzas Pass Bridge, entire marina buildings were shattered, wooden docks twisted and splintered. Sheriff’s deputies blocked access to Estero Island, saying the bridge was unsafe to cross.