Hurricane Ian made landfall on Florida’s southwest coast on September 28, 2022, with 150-mile-per-hour winds and a catastrophic 15-foot storm surge. The storm submerged homes, businesses, and entire communities across Lee County, including Fort Myers Beach.

I covered the storm live from the field. As a television network news meteorologist with more than twenty years of severe weather experience, I knew exactly what was coming from Ian’s wrath. I had the data. I had the models. I had broadcast warnings to the public for days. None of it mattered when the surge unexpectedly surrounded us. The waters submerged our car. We were trapped and moments from death.

Ian’s Surge is the minute-by-minute account of what happened before and during the devastating landfall. Each terrifying moment told by me, the meteorologist who nearly drowned in the storm multiple times. How did we escape the submerged vehicle, who rescued us and what happened for 12 hours as we rode out the Category 4 hurricane in the open water. This is not a weather story. It is a survival story based on the real life events.