Hurricane Ian wipes out the entire Florida town

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Hurricane Ian wipes out the entire Florida town

FORT MYERS, Fla. — It was a city on Thursday where yachts were parked on the street and hundreds of cars were underwater thanks to Hurricane Ian and its deadly and destructive force.

The roads that weren't flooded were lined with disemboweled homes, some stripped of their roofs, and littered with once-proud palm trees that had been ripped up by the roots, which in many cases were snapped like matchsticks.

Many downtown stores were boarded up, while others were reduced to splinters. Long lines of motorists waited to fill up at the few gas stations that had been reopened.

Our boat is done, said Addie Maynard, 23, who until Ian intruded Wednesday had been living on a 34 foot yacht with her boyfriend at Old Bridge Marina in North Fort Myers. Our marina was wiped out. They are staying in a damaged high-rise condominium building near the Caloosahatchee River.

Maynard said that their boat wasn't among those whose storm surge was evicted from marinas and deposited in the street.

Our boat made it through the storm, but the interior is soaking wet, Maynard said. Only three of 60 boats made it. Ian, who is known for his 150 mph winds, first made landfall Tuesday 20 miles west of Fort Myers on Cayo Costa and quickly swamped this city of 87,000, a longtime destination for sun-loving tourists, where Thomas Edison and Henry Ford built majestic winter estates.

The residents of the town said they were counting their blessings and rallying around their town despite the epic destruction.

Amanda Bodiot, 35, said I feel like beautiful things will come out of this, like togetherness. People have lost their entire homes. We have the opportunity to come around them and support them. Bodiot said neighbors are already helping each other and not waiting for help from outside.

She said that when we get the opportunity to hold each other up, people are so self-reliant.

Cebi Stough, 30, believes that it could be a while before Fort Myers returns to what it was.

I'm just wondering how you clean up, Stough said. The beach is really sad and everywhere is pretty destroyed. Stough was referring to nearby Fort Myers Beach, where the main drag, Estero Boulevard, was coated with a thick layer of sand and many souvenir stores were wrecked.

Stough said it could have been a lot worse.

She said that this is the worst hurricane I've ever had.

Mayor Kevin Anderson said the same thing earlier in an interview on NBC's TODAY. Anderson said that I came here in the mid-70s. I was in the police department for almost 25 years and saw a lot of storms here. This is the worst storm I have ever seen.

It was heartbreaking to see that water rise and just flood all the stores on the first floor. At a park near downtown, crews were already reducing fallen trees to mulch and dealing with downed wires while a group of boys played soccer.

Sergio Francisco, 33, a lifelong Fort Myers resident, took his four nephews to the Terry Park Sports Complex and said it was a little relief to get the kids outside.

Francisco said that he was grateful that his family made it through the storm intact and still had running water, food and electricity. He was grateful to have somewhere to go with the boys.

We saw how the storm affected us, he said. We're just here to get their minds off of things. Deon J. Hampton reported from Fort Myers and Corky Siemaszko of New York City.