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Florida residents are assessing the damage a day after Ian made landfall in Florida as one of the strongest hurricanes ever to hit the U.S. Aerial photos from the Fort Myers area, a few miles west of where Ian struck land, showed homes ripped from their slabs and deposited in a jumble among shredded wreckage. Businesses near the beach were completely razed, leaving just twisted debris. Broken docks floated at odd angles beside damaged boats, and fires smoldered on lots where houses once stood.The Coast Guard and National Guard were "pulling people off of roofs in Fort Myers" with aircraft Thursday morning, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Brendan McPherson told CNN. Coast Guard crews have conducted 28 rescues on Thursday, the service said.“We’ve never seen storm surge of this magnitude,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told a news conference. “The amount of water that’s been rising, and will likely continue to rise today even as the storm is passing, is basically a 500-year flooding event.”Video below: Drone footage shows hurricane damage in Fort Myers Though downgraded to a tropical storm by Thursday morning, the National Hurricane Center said storm surge and flooding rains remained a threat as Ian crept across the Florida peninsula and emerged in the Atlantic Ocean north of Cape Canaveral. Forecasters predicted Ian would regain some strength while turning northward.In Fort Myers, Valerie Bartley’s family spent desperate hours Wednesday holding a dining room table against their patio door, fearing the storm raging outside “was tearing our house apart.”“I was terrified,” Bartley said. “What we heard was the shingles and debris from everything in the neighborhood hitting our house.”She said her 4-year-old daughter grabbed her hand and said: “I’m scared too, but it’s going to be OK.” The girl was right. The storm ripped away patio screens and snapped a palm tree in the yard, Bartley said, but left the roof intact and her family unharmed.Thomas Podgorny was trapped in his two-story home in Fort Myers with three others, watching vehicles float away outside and worrying about others who did not evacuate, he told CNN Wednesday evening."I've lost my house. I have water and gas flowing through my bottom floor," he said. "My neighbors have very little breathing room in their one-story house."One couple there was trapped in their home when the ceiling caved in."Something is dripping on me," Belinda Collins recalled her partner saying. "He got up, and the ceiling — the family room ceiling — caved in." They called 911 and were waiting for a call back about when it would be safe to leave, they said.Scott Carlos, who rode out the storm in his fourth-story Fort Myers condo, saw waves of water crash into homes across the street, up to their roofs, he said. Roads are littered Thursday with washed-out vehicles, he told CNN on Thursday."Everybody's garages basically just gave out. ... Cars are everywhere, smashed up in the street. There's debris everywhere," he said.The Associated Press and CNN contributed to this article.