NAPLES, Fla. (WSVN) – The path of destruction was almost unimaginable, as 7Skyforce captured the damage caused by Hurricane Ian, Thursday morning.
It was a huge storm, and for the first time, we’re getting a bird’s-eye view of the destruction it left behind.
There were signs of Ian’s path in almost every neighborhood along Southwest Florida’s coast.
Ralph Rayburn: “We traveled north from Naples where along the shoreline — where we saw extensive damage in marinas, and we saw vehicles that were flipped upside down.”
Seven’s Ralph Rayburn flew over Naples. Cars and trucks had been picked up by the storm surge. Some were flipped over, while others were buried in the sand.
There were boats stacked on top of each other. Other boats had been washed up into yards against homes.
Many homes showed damage from Ian’s winds. Some were destroyed.
Everything but the outer walls were gone and washed away. A horrifying pile of debris was all that was left of the 39 trailers that made up the Bonita Beach Village Mobile Home Park.
Ralph Rayburn: “This is a mobile home park here where it looks like the wind collected all of these residences here and pushed them all the way off the side of the road back into the bay there.”
There were emergency crews trying to make their way into the coastal neighborhoods. Their efforts were hindered by sand across almost every road.
The beach was washed inland by Ian’s storm surge.
Ralph Rayburn: “There were some people out on the roadways. There were cars where people tried to venture out, but they couldn’t get very far. I think the water pushed so much sand on the roadway that you’re looking at right there that it’s just impossible to pass on a road that’s just used for traffic.”
7Skyforce didn’t, however, see a lot of people in the damaged neighborhoods, which hopefully means they heeded evacuation warnings before the storm. But rescue crews will still have to go door to door.
Ralph Rayburn: “They’re taking headcounts. They’re trying to establish who left, and who is still there, who stayed behind, and do some kind of a headcount of the number of people that are there.”
For Rayburn and the 7Skyforce team, who have flown over hurricane zones before, the sheer size of the area of destruction was shocking.
Ralph Rayburn: “We flew over after Hurricane Charley went through up there in Sanibel, Estero and those areas right there, Captiva, and the damage was intense, but it was much, much, much smaller. This is much more widespread.”
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