The hurricane made landfall near Cayo Costa island on Wednesday at around 3 p.m. EDT, causing widespread flooding in nearby Fort Myers and Cape Coral.
Jared Moskowitz, who was the former director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management, shared a video of some of the destruction caused by the storm on his Twitter page.
He also said that most of Fort Myers Beach will need to be completely rebuilt as a result.
The video, shot from a helicopter, gives an aerial view of Fort Myers and the beach and has been viewed more than 600,000 times.
Debris can be seen scattered everywhere, with some homes being partially damaged due to the storm.
Another video, which has gone viral with more than 1.3 million views, shows Fort Myers Beach at ground level.
The person behind the camera walks through the beach, which has been covered in debris and shows the scale of the destruction.
WINK meteorologist Matt Devitt also shared a video on Twitter on Thursday, showing how his studio was affected by Hurricane Ian.
“Storm surge got into our WINK studios in Fort Myers, flooded the entire first floor.
“Lost power and was unable to continue broadcasting on TV/radio,” Devitt tweeted.
“No timetable on return to air. Ian was the strongest hurricane in Southwest Florida history. Widespread destruction heading home.”
A video of the aftermath posted on Twitter by former news reporter Devin Turk showed the sea had all but merged with downtown Fort Myers, with roads, car parks and open space submerged and houses surrounded by water.
Another video that was tweeted shows streets of Fort Myers completely flooded. In the footage, two cars can be seen attempting to drive down the road, despite the high water.
As of Friday morning, there were 10 confirmed deaths from the storm, according to a BBC report, but Florida officials have warned the actual figure could be considerably higher.
Speaking on Good Morning America on Thursday morning, Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said: “So, while I don’t have confirmed numbers, I definitely know fatalities are in the hundreds. There are thousands of people waiting to be rescued.”
Newsweek has contacted the Mayor of Fort Myers Kevin B. Anderson, as well as Jared Moskowitz.
