An Ohio mother was recently killed in a freak accident during Hurricane Ian while on a Florida birthday trip.
According to the WLWT, Nishelle Harris-Miles died after the deadly storm ripped the roof off the Fort Myers home she was staying, and a nail pierced her main artery.
“She got trapped under. A nail pierced her main artery,” her cousin Chanel Maston told the news outlet. “She just turned 40. Sept. 23, she just turned 40. She died nine days after her birthday.”
Four Dayton women, including Maston and Harris-Miles, initially traveled to Fort Myers to celebrate the victim’s birthday. However, things went left as they got trapped in Hurricane Ian–a hurricane that recently hit the Sunshine State and left over 70 people dead and thousands stranded without power.
“We strapped ourselves to each other with a sheet, laid on the mattress,” Maston said about the freak accident. “That water came out that floor so fast, so quick. The roof was smashing us. We tried to kick off the roof and lay on the mattress. It kicked off that roof, so that roof wouldn’t smash us, and the roof went, and we went.”
As the water began rushing into the ladies’ room, she reportedly recorded her scary experience on Facebook to check in with loved ones. She also called 911 and 211 for help.
“We started calling people before the water really started rising. We called 911. We called 211. We called everybody to get us out of there, and nobody came,” Maston said.
Unfortunately, the trip took a fatal turn which one of the attendees, LaQuitta Heard, said traumatized her.
“I personally will never be the same again,” she told WHIO. “[I] went [on the birthday trip] for peace and came back broken, lost, confused, guilty.”
On Oct. 2, a balloon release was held in memory of Harris-Miles in Dayton, Ohio.
“The children will be mostly affected. They no longer have a mother. She was a loving type of person. She passed love wherever she went…She touched a lot of souls,” a family friend, Will Crusoe, told WDTN.
Maston echoed Crusoe’s sentiment saying, “She loved everything. She loved life.”
