Hurricane Ian updates: Storm upgrades to Category 1; Florida sees deaths, damage as South Carolina braces for landfall - KABC-TV

Recovery efforts are underway in southwestern Florida after Hurricane Ian left a path of destruction.

-- A revived Hurricane Ian set its sights on South Carolina's coast Friday and the historic city of Charleston, with forecasters predicting a storm surge and floods after the megastorm caused catastrophic damage in Florida and left people trapped in their homes.

With all of South Carolina's coast under a hurricane warning, a steady stream of vehicles left Charleston on Thursday, many likely heeding officials' warnings to seek higher ground.

The hurricane warning stretched from the Savannah River to Cape Fear, with flooding rains likely across the Carolinas and southwestern Virginia, the center said.

PHOTOS: Haunting aerial images show Hurricane Ian's aftermath in Fort Myers, Sanibel Island.

In the Fort Myers area, the hurricane ripped homes from their slabs and deposited them among shredded wreckage.

"I don't know how anyone could have survived in there," William Goodison said amid the wreckage of a mobile home park in Fort Myers Beach where he'd lived for 11 years.

The road into Fort Myers was littered with broken trees, boat trailers and other debris.

Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said his office was scrambling to respond to thousands of 911 calls in the Fort Myers area, but many roads and bridges were impassable.

The National Hurricane Center predicted it would hit South Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane Friday.

Associated Press contributors include Terry Spencer and Tim Reynolds in Fort Myers; Cody Jackson in Tampa, Florida; Freida Frisaro in Miami; Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida; Seth Borenstein in Washington; and Bobby Caina Calvan in New York