15ft Storm Surge Washes Away Homes in Ft. Myers Beach - Hurricane Ian 

Just Released - View the entire RAW 10 hours of storm surge footage captured by the probe. LINK - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-igsz7cqg-Zk.html

UPDATE - We have confirmed via family that the people who were staying in this house at the time of the storm somehow were able to make it out alive even after floating away. We are still getting details and I'll try and post more specific updates but I just wanted everyone to know the good news.

This should be shown to everyone who lives in a Hurricane prone area. The storm surge is hard to describe in words. This video shows how deadly it truly is.

I live about 7 miles inland from Fort Myers Beach, and the storm surge was about knee deep(I'm 6ft tall) at our apartment complex. The next morning when the water had receded, you can see all of the abandoned cars in the middle of the road from the storm surge. This is a day that I will never forget for as long as I live.

Thank you for allowing me to share this with our clients. Everyone needs to see how much damage Hurricane can cause. You do amazing work...stay safe!

We’re new to Florida and had a little bit of power outages in our area. My 8 year old was complaining and so I showed him this video to help him understand how lucky we are to still have our home standing. Power outages are nothing compared to what happened to so many peoples homes. My heart breaks for those who were most affected by this hurricane😞

My God. You HEAR about storm surge, and you READ about storm surge, but it’s still hard to imagine if you’ve never seen it up close like victims of a hurricane have. This is absolutely stunning and terrifying. 😳

I lived through many hurricanes, but this is the worst destruction I'v ever seen.Many people died during that footage, you can't really think of that your house is being taken down by 15' raging surge and filled with water into the ceiling withiing minutes.. terrifying !! This is the best video capture ever !

I'm blessed that I don't live in hurricane areas but I do feel a tremendous amount of pain for those who live in those areas and have lost their homes and families. This truly shows you how dangerous it is.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!!!!! Some of the best hurricane footage ever captured. I don’t know that I can name another video that better captures the ferocity of catastrophic storm surge. Excellent work as always Max!

I'm a native Floridian and people always downplay hurricanes and don't fully grasp their destruction. You can lose everything including your life in split seconds. The aftermath is also very dangerous. I've been thru many storms and its hard to comprehend the strength and devastation while its happening. This video is crazy! Great job and stay safe!

FOR CRYING OUT LOUD !!!!! That was mesmerizing, I’m glad it wasn’t a long video, because I was stuck !

I grew up in Ft Myers and OMG I am glad I moved away. God bless all that went through this. 💯🙏

This is the first I have seen storm surge demonstrated so well. That was pretty scary. Thank you!

This is absolutely terrifying. Its not just flooding, it’s a full on raging ocean 😭

Absolutely breathtaking and very tragic at the same time. We live in North Port and we share our grief to what happened in Ft. Myers too. Such a devastating hurricane!

Amazing footage ... I am glad to hear the family is safe. Thank you for the video, it will most definitely make people like myself who've never experienced or never would want to experience a hurricane, evacuate when timely warnings are broadcast.

Holy crap this footage is unreal! This is absolutely insane, hard to fathom that amount of storm surge. So glad you guys made it out safe! My thoughts are with Florida right now

I have experienced two class 5, two class 4 and numerous class 1,2 and 3 hurricanes. I have tried desperately, (with little success), to explain to people over the years of what is capable during one of these monster storms. It's not just the wind, but even more destructive at times, is the storm surges of walls of water. This is the best example of what I have witnessed myself and perhaps this can be used to educate others. Bravo to Max Olson and all who are all to be commended for their foresight in capturing such dramatic documentary footage! Thanks!

Storm surge is nothing to play with. Some of the best surge footage ever captured.

Thanks to this video, I have a whole new respect for the term storm surge. Hard to believe that many did not evacuate.

That video should be broadcast before every future hurricane as a testament to what can (and will) go wrong.

This is absolutely wild. It’s hard to imagine what a storm surge looks like until you can physically see it get higher and higher. The sheer force that it has too. The waves it created were massive. Amazing footage but so heartbreaking at the level of destruction the hurricane caused.

Amazing! And THANK YOU for not thinking the sounds of the storm needed dramatic music. The real sound was dramatic enough!!

That was the best video to watch if you need to understand how dangerous Hurricanes can be. Thanks for posting.

That is truly amazing and very frightening! I was not expecting to see an entire house simply get swept away by the water. Now I understand why storm-surge is so devastating.

Wow...amazing footage Max! Every TV station near hurricane prone coastal communities needs to have this on file for the next time there is a hurricane evacuation order!

We went through this storm in N Ft. Myers and even though I had no storm surge, it was no picnic either. We never got the eye but stayed in the eyewall 6-7 hours or more with almost constant 100-125 mph gusts and that might be conservative. The backside came in about 6:30-7:00 pm and was ever bit as strong as the front side but only lasted until about 8:30-9:00 pm before calming down some. No house damage but a lot of tree damage and all the older mobile home parks to my south really took a beating and deposited sheet metal and styrofoam insulation aplenty on my 5 acres. Just finished cleanup a week ago. I am so glad these folks and their pets survived that wild ride and hope all that see this video will give more thought about evacuating storm surge areas when the next big blow comes their way.

WOW....this is INSAAAAAANNNE!!! Couldn't imagine being trapped in that pink house and minutes later being swept away in it.Those waves were angry and aggressive! Even if you made it outside that house...you'd only survive on a wing and prayer🙏

I can't wrap my head around how he was able to capture this footage. Just incredible to watch.

This needs to be on every single broadcast when a hurricane threatens land. I literally have chills looking at this.

They made it out alive and wit their 2 dogs. An amazing story and must have been terrifying for them especially when they were separated and didn’t know if each other were still alive. The fact that she hung onto a pole for 4 hrs ! With her 2 dogs ! She is a hero in my books and i wish them a great life going forward… my heart goes out to her … i know how hard she must have fought to save those dogs

The wind gusts near the end with the raging sea was insane. Props to whoever set this camera up, I will never think of a 15 foot storm surge in the same way again.

Wow! That is one well-mounted camera! Shocking to see how high the water got and the aftermath.... just incredible!

My aunt has lived in Fort Myers for over 40 years, in the same house, more than a mile from the Gulf and she had 6+ feet of water in her house and yard. A lifelong Floridian, she is rebuilding her life and home in the same place at the age of 82. I want to be as strong and resilient as she!💪

In June 2021 Imoved from Dallas to Theodore Alabama (15 miles south of Mobile). The house was on Fowl River. I remember going through 3 hurricanes and then someone said the next storm is going to be a Storm Surge. I said...what's that? she said it's so much worse than a hurricane and she never said anything else so I was freaking out. I finally moved 5 months later. I stayed in Port Charlotte Florida and they convinced me to move there but after 8 days I didn't have peace so I moved to California. I'm so thankful.

Wow I’m praying the guy who opened the door to look out made it out safely.🙏🏾❤️😢

that was unbelievable one minute it looks like a normal part of town then hours later looks like the mid atlantic. prayers for everyone affected

👏 showing my students this video. Teaching them about hurricanes this week.

That. Is. Terrifying. My sister lived in Ft. Myers during Ian and I grew to LOVE it and all of SW FL. My heart was broken to see the devastation. This film is amazing but horrifying..

This video gave me chills. I think it should be used for educational purposes to illustrate how deadly a storm surge can be. Never underestimate the power of the ocean.

omg! unbelievable I pray that no one stood in that house and evacuated prayers for everyone in Florida 🙏

Absolutely terrifying! I don't know how you could survive this!

Saw the uncut footage. Incredible forces at work here…

Storm surge is what scares me the most when it comes to these storms. That and embedded tornados that are almost impossible to detect. Prayers lifted to all affected areas in Ians path.

Max. Thanks for Posting. You and Cam were in perfect spot to capture the Power of a Storm Surge from the ocean.

Hard to believe this was a year ago!! Even more hard to believe that entire strip of Fort Meyers Beach was taken over by the ocean like this!!!

Great video. It truly captures how one minute you’re on dry pavement and a few hours later you’re swallowed by the ocean.

The time lapse photography is stellar, my compliments to the photographer.

excellent work, Max. incredibly frightful scenario.

This is one of the scariest videos I have ever seen and I`ve watched quite a few of them. I feel for anyone who chose to stay and sit through this.

Unrecognizable in the end, it goes to show how powerful mother nature truly is. Fantastic footage, kudos to that man who recorded it.

Crazy to watch 3 little palm trees stand their ground, yet watch an entire house float away

Laying back eating popcorn while watching this best movies I've seen yet. 4k please! That's all it's missing 🥺 Alright Florida can't wait for a next year let's make it bigger this time. And give me the fresh cold front! 😀

I live in Florida. I'm scared of storms because I know the power of the waves because we're boaters. In a 60' boat the waves on a sunny day can humble you so quick. Mother Nature that owns that sand, we humans are astoundingly naive that we control anything. Jacque Cousteau many years ago said on video NO ONE SHOULD LIVE WITHIN 10 miles of the coast, NO ONE. He said it should all be day parks that close at dusk but he said the greed of the unsafe building will come back to haunt us and it has. Cousteau was brilliant and no one wanted to listen to him. I have always adhered to his advice. I lost my front porch and we have roof damage and I couldn't be happier to have so little damage and a home to come back home to. I am so thankful to have followed Cousteau and all reading this should research his views. My heart ❤ goes out to those affected by Ian.🙏

HOLY SMOLIE! Now, that is what Storm Surge really is. Great job! Prayers for everyone affected by IAN.

This is just some seriously AMAZING footage they managed to capture. It essentially looks like there’s random palm trees in the middle of the ocean w a telephone pole & wires above it.

I am Italian, I live in Italy, but my father lives there in Fort Myers, his house survived by a miracle, in those days I remained in suspense because I could not even call him since he had no telephone line, I am close to all the people who were damaged by that disaster .

This is why the focus on expiremental storm surge forecasts with NOAA and NWS are so needed. Wind speed categories are helpful, but in the end it's water that kills the most people and causes the most damage. And these videos are important to give visual frames of reference! It's hard to imagine the scale of what 15' of surge across several miles of coastline actually looks like, especially while standing on a sunny street with the hurricane still 2 days away.

They weren’t kidding when predicting 18 ft storm surge. This is unreal. Holy Macaroni !!!

The dream of maybe one day retiring to Florida has pretty much washed away for me. Four distinct seasons are where it's at and the occasional southern vacation sprinkled in. Excellent, but heartbreaking video.

Certainly looks like a nice place to vacation, can't imagine living in such an inviting and beautiful area.

I got done with work and I was sitting down in the truck and I stared at a house that was literally chopped in half and all you see is the stove, the microwave, and some stuff. All I kept thinking was how before there was people living there doing their lives, cooking, chatting and now it’s completely destroyed. I looked at the Pier and remember the good times I used to fish with my friends there, also completely gone.

My parents used to live in a condo only about a mile down the road. They bought a house in town about 15 years ago. Been right past there many times.

This is an amazing video of the surge. Its scary and an eye opener. Sad to see the Ft Meyers area now and really sad for the loss of life there. Was there just a week before Ian hit, loved it there. This vid should be shown nation wide for those who live in coastal areas.

It’s crazy! Never seen anything like this.😮😢 I have chills watching this.

This is the most unbelievable video about a hurricane I have ever seen and I've been around since Donna in 1960.

One of the most incredible videos I have ever seen.

WOW great footage! The power of the storm surge is unbelievable.

From someone who doesn't live in a hurricane prone area, all I can say is, WOW! I'm speechless; I'll take subzero temps and blizzards any day of the week. Thanks for posting and educating me and others.

I live 6 miles from this area, and visited this streets businesses/the beach so very often over the past 10-15 years. Its unbelievably surreal to see this devastation.

Geezus!!! This is not surge but the ocean returning to its original home. Very happy and surprised that family stayed and survived. Scary shit especially when the back wall hits. Wow POWER!!! Strong ass storm

Watching it creep in was scary.. wow. I chased this storm in Bradenton and it was bad there but no surge, this is just a whole nother level

This is DEVASTATING...Me heart goes out to those affected by Ian. Prayers sent as well :(

One gallon of milk is 8 pounds, and feels heavy even, sometimes. Can you imagine HOW MANY POUNDS OF FORCE THIS SURGE BROUGHT AGAINST THIS HOUSE?!?!?! Positively mind blowing! And the electric that comes into our homes-- those aren't skinny, whimpy cables...it's like the house was "on a leash" too. But that water just sent it on it's merry way. And reading THE FAMILY WAS INSIDE DURING THIS????? Only by God's hand did they survive.

Wonderful videos that will save many lives in the future! What an interesting video it would be to use your drone to get video from where the house was to where it ended up. On the map it looks like it must have been a trip of horror for both survivors and their dogs! Great work Guys! 👍

Glad I left that area few years ago, looking at footage like this makes me realize all the snow I deal with aint so bad after all...

I agree, this is must viewing, especially for future storms. It would be great to have a time stamp to see how fast this happened.

That is basically a tsunami only moving slower. Very scary!!!! Thank you for sharing!

Thx for the footage! I thought for sure every camera that had been set would be swept out to sea. It is an odd sight to see a two story house you walk by all the time floating down the street. I kept saying to my friend's the only thing left would be Margarita-Ville and the Lani Kai, but my friends' kept telling me , "naaah, it'll be fine like Charley". It was not fine like Charley, and I know people stayed because they were all thinking about Charley where they got like two feet of water in the house, and things were fine and dandy a few days later. My friend lives with her Dad on the beach and they sought refuge over here the second I said they could bug out to our guest room, and we are not that safe only a few minutes away and walking distance from the Calusa. I was expecting tarpon in the first floor but thankfully the surge stopped short. My friend a mile closer to the beach on the water had 50' boats in people's backyards, soooo we were beyond lucky we did not get inundated by the insane surge, but it was close. Our block became an island and the street a flowing river at one point. That water rises and spreads so much faster than I thought, storm surge is not something be under-estimated! The way the winds were blowing we had the garage door open the first half of the storm and could actually witness things go bottoms up very fast, until the winds shifted half way in, and we all got away from that door very fast.

This is downright brilliant. Years ago as a reporter, I wanted to post cameras in storms. Go-Pros have changed the world. Tell me exactly how you did this? Battery life? Harddrive storage? When did you mount the camera and where did you go for safety after you mounted it?

Great video. People who have never been in a hurricane have no idea what it is really like.

😮 greetings from coastal Mississippi. I survived Camille and Katrina. Heed the warnings .

Yes, I remembered, I saw that pink house in Fort Myers Beach, Florida in 1980's too

Insane 😲sad that family lost their house .. prayers for Florida. Glad you are okay.

This is wild... Prayers to those who were directly struck by Hurricane Ian. Recently, our place here in Manila was smashed by Category 5 Super Typhoon Noru and the good thing was we only felt the wind at our place! Hopefully they will recover quicker!

This is just terrifying! Thank you for sharing.

Oh god! Its so so scary to watch, can't even imagine how people actual deals with this kind of situation, may god protect them❤

Thank you for sharing this. I live in New England and have dear friends in central Florida. Sanibel Island has been my family's favorite vacation destination for several decades. So peace-filled, and restorative to our souls. We send daily prayers to all the people who are affected by this storm.

I’ve watched a lot of footage from this hurricane and this has me floored.

That is just terrifying! I 🙏🏻pray everyone had evacuated in time.

Intrigued to know what the camera was fastened on to. As someone else commented... best ever

This video is insane, I feel sorry for all those poor souls who felt they could ride something like this out. It should be a lesson to everyone that evacuating for a hurricane is an absolute necessity if you value life and limb. Nice work Max capturing this phenomena.

it can be very difficult to comprehend the power of mother nature sometimes. fantastic video, thank you for sharing!

Shout out to the camera man! Crazy!

Unbelievable. But clearly should be believed. This is so incredibly sad. I cannot imagine having my home full of all of my possessions just uprooted and gone and destroyed. My heart goes out to all who have experienced any level of this.

I hope that whoever opened the door of the house, in the beginning of the video, watching the water start to come up the street, got out in time. :(

Apparently everyone and their mother used to live in that house.

We are staying in Ft Myers now on a spring vacation, April 2024. The town is still rebuilding from all the devastation. Nicest people here, beautiful place, but a Cat 5 hurricane don’t care about that.

After witnessing and surviving 2 category 5 hurricanes in my lifetime, words can not begin to express how luckily I felt when I learned that while grizzly bears are very strong swimmers, they rarely are spotted in the waters of south florida.