Less than 24 hours after the hurricane made landfall, I’m standing with Pastor James Macon from the city’s River Church, assessing the devastation. Fort Myers was directly in the line of the hurricane.
Boats are piled on top of one another at the marina, pieces of the floating harbour have been forced inland, and the area is covered with muck and trash.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in all my years in Florida. I’ve been here since 1982 and I’m lost for word right now,” he tells me.
“This is, wow.”
Pastor James says he’s been driving around looking for people in need of help and he’s particularly worried about homeless people who might have been out last night.
But while he’s aware that much of the damage here in the marina is likely to impact a different end of society, he says everyone needs help.
“This neighbourhood, of course, they’re pretty well off, but we’re here to help them out.”
Lee county, the area that surrounds Fort Myers took the brunt of the storm surge.
There’s been suggestions from the local sheriff, Carmine Marceno, that – in outlying island communities – particularly where they’re hard to access as a result of at least one destroyed bridge and a damaged causeway – the authorities fear they could yet find a significant loss of life.
But so far, there’s been no official confirmation of that claim and, in a later interview, Mr Marceno was more cautious.
“I don’t know the exact numbers, it’s very preliminary,” he told CNN.
The hurricane quickly lost power as it barrelled into the gulf side of the Florida peninsular and though heavy rain continued to pose a risk of flooding, the wind speed quickly dropped.
Patrick Hallquist was at home when the hurricane struck and says he’s never seen anything this bad.
“I’ve been in quite a few hurricanes and this is the worst storm surge I’ve ever seen”, he tells me.
“It was a little bit anxiety-ridden,” he adds.
Despite the devastation, many here feel they’ve had a lucky escape from a hurricane that fits a pattern of increasingly powerful storms, thought to be fuelled in part by man-made global warming.
Pastor James says he’s so far seen no evidence of a large number of casualties.
“I have a lot of friends around here, I’ve visited their houses and so far, so good,” he tells me.
“By the grace of God, we did endure this thing.”