Countless homes and businesses have been inundated with what the governor calls a 500-year flood.
They're picking up the pieces in Florida, where Hurricane Ian slammed into the southwest coast as the fifth strongest storm to ever hit the United States.
The beachfront in Fort Myers was reduced to rubble. Sanibel Island is now submerged, and its inhabitants are stranded after the highway linking the island to the mainland washed away. House fires burn out of control that fire crews simply cannot get to because of the flooding.
As the hurricane struck, those who chose to ride it out could only watch in horror as their homes were overwhelmed.
One woman trapped inside her home found herself in an inflatable pool.
Meteorologist Rob Guarino rode out the hurricane on the 27th floor of his apartment building, which swayed in 100 mph winds.
News crews covering the storm turned heroes. A cameraman from Australia put down his camera and ran to help a family escaping the flood. A reporter rescued a woman trapped in her car, carrying her to safety on his back.
A puppy lost in the chaos was stranded on the hood of a car until a good Samaritan came by in a boat and scooped him up.
Fort Myers CBS affiliate WINK-TV was forced off the air after the newsroom was inundated.
Ian is expected to intensify back to hurricane status over the Atlantic before making landfall in South Carolina on Friday.
