Crews search for missing after Ian rips through Florida

STORY: Rescue workers and residents of Florida's Gulf Coast searched for missing people and picked up the pieces from wrecked homes on Thursday after Hurricane Ian tore through the area with howling winds, torrential rains and raging surf and caused massive power outages.

One of the most powerful storms to ever hit Florida, Ian flooded communities, downed trees, and ripped houses open before plowing across the state to the Atlantic seaboard. 

[Reporter asks: 'Was it really scary?']

[no name given] "Uh, yes, my stomach was in knots. I was kind of scared for my children. And I didn't want to lose any of our stuff. It's all we have."

"The impacts of this storm are historic."Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Thursday called the storm a 500-year flood event." 

"We've never seen a flood event like this, we've never seen storm surge of this magnitude, and it hit an area where there's a lot of people and a lot of low-lying areas and it's going to end up doing extensive damage to a lot of people's homes. So there's going to be a lot of work to do."

The extent of deaths and injuries was unclear on Thursday morning as rescue workers were only starting to respond to calls, unable to go out during the treacherous conditions.

Hurricane hunter Nick Underwood flew through the storm Wednesday, and said it was the roughest flight of his career. 

"Never seen that much turbulence before. And the other thing was lightning, just tons of lightning, especially in and around the eyewall of the storm, which is something that you really just don't see all that often."

The Category 4 hurricane brought winds of 150 miles per hour, quickly turning Florida's southwestern shoreline into a disaster zone as it swept seawater into neighborhoods.. 

George Koch, professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Northern Arizona University,  said climate change isn't making hurricanes more frequent, but they could get more intense.

"They have really been quite impressive for the amount of rainfall that they produce. Like over Puerto Rico very recently. And that's consistent with what the models say we may see more of in the future. More intense hurricanes." 

The National Hurricane Center said Ian, now a tropical storm, slackened as it trekked across Florida but was still producing strong winds, heavy rains and storm surge, as it heads to Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

Local power companies said Thursday more than 2.5 million homes and businesses in Florida remained without power.