(CNN) — On Wednesday afternoon in Naples, Florida, Lauren Barlow watched as water came through the front door of her home and began to rise through the first floor.
“Cars are floating down our street,” Barlow, who was holed up on the upper level of the house, told CNN. “Our garage completely flooded, ruining our cars. Then the water started coming through the door on the inside and now it’s rapidly coming up the stairs, flooding the first floor.”
Nearby, city firefighters posted a video on Facebook walking through chest-deep cold water as they rescued a person from the rushing waters.
Hurricane Ian, which made landfall as a Category 4 cyclone on Florida’s southwest coast shortly after 3 p.m., has been battering coastal communities for hours. Its fierce winds are blowing away debris, uprooting trees, setting off alarms and downing power lines.
The storm surge, which meteorologists have warned about, endangers the lives of people and has flooded houses and neighborhoods, and has already raised the water level in some areas to record levels. The waters in Fort Myers are higher than ever seen since authorities began recording measurements in 1965.
John Iverson, a Fort Myers resident, told CNN Wednesday that he would have evacuated if he realized how hard it would hit the area. Iverson took refuge at a friend’s house Wednesday afternoon, but even there, the first floor was mostly underwater, he told CNN. Cars in the home’s garage and cars in his friend’s front yard were also completely submerged, he said.
Iverson added that the house he was sheltering in has multiple levels, so he can stay dry.
Marcel Chartier, manager of the DiamondHead Beach Resort, was holed up in the hotel Wednesday night as the storm tore through the Fort Myers area, sweeping away cars and everything in its path. Across the street, an entire building was almost completely under water, Chartier told CNN.
“The winds are extremely strong, we can’t see anything out the windows,” Chartier said. “The water is very high and is approaching the roof of the building opposite.”
State and local authorities earlier this week issued mandatory evacuation orders for more than 1.75 million people in several southwestern counties, including Lee, Pinellas, Sarasota and Hillsborough. For those who stayed, local authorities warned that the best practice was to shelter in place and not venture out.
Across Florida, more than 1.3 million people lost power Wednesday night as the storm moved through the state, according to Poweroutage.us.