Family loses everything as Hurricane Ian batters Florida

Families in Florida are picking up the pieces after Hurricane Ian ravaged the state this week, with one family saying they lost everything after their home's foundation crumbled in the storm surge.

Ian made landfall Wednesday afternoon as a Category 4 storm over the west coast of Florida, leaving more than a dozen dead, flooded streets and millions without power.

The Gutierrez family of Fort Myers Beach, Florida, took video footage of the storm's damage in their home showing their belongings, furniture and furniture strewn about in high, muddy flood waters.

Maribel Gutierrez, the mother of the family, told MSNBC she and her husband and her four children held hands in a chain as they escaped their home in the midst of the ferocious hurricane in search of higher ground.

She said they had to leave after they felt the foundation of their home move and the walls started to come down.

We were calm in our house until 1 p.m. and in 2 : 30 p.m. more or less, we came out, she said.

When the family opened their door, 3 to 4 feet of water came in and they were met with howling winds, she recalled.

We ran out, my children and I holding hands, and we came to a house with a second floor and a laundry area, she said.

We were being moved left and right, and we sometimes lost our grip, but we were able to grab onto each other again, Maribel said. We got to that, thank God, two-story structure, and we went to a laundry and we were there for five hours with panic because the water kept coming up and kept coming up. She and her family members were crying as they watched the storm out.

It was really ugly, so horrible. The house almost fell. It opened up, the foundation almost came up, it all got destroyed and cut, Maribel said. We lost everything. We are left with not one single thing. Her daughter Liliana Gutierrez said when the family walked out of the hurricane, she had to focus on where we had to go and not think about what was around. Liliana said at one point she feared for the worse but she had to pull herself together and get through it. Maribel remembered through tears how her son was crying in the hurricane and told her, Mommy, don't let me die. Maribel said God protected us despite the immense loss. The family is staying at a friend's house which suffered damage in the storm, remains without power and has the windows blown out.

The path of destruction of Ian is not yet over as the hurricane is expected to make landfall in South Carolina on Friday.