DeKALB – On Sunday, Nicole Adams of DeKalb will pack a U-Haul truck with water, gasoline, pet food, garbage bags and even a little Bud Light and drive almost 1,300 miles to North Fort Myers, Florida, to help her sister and more than a dozen neighbors taking shelter at one house in the wake of Hurricane Ian.

One of the strongest to ever hit the U.S., the hurricane made landfall around midday Wednesday. The death toll rose to 17 Friday. The storm flooded homes on both Florida’s coasts, cut off the only bridge to a barrier island, destroyed a historic waterfront pier and knocked out electricity to 2.67 million Florida homes and businesses, almost a quarter of utility customers, The Associated Press reported.

In the 42,700-populous town of North Fort Myers – about a half hour from the Gulf of Mexico coast and north of Cape Coral – Adam’s sister, Marcie Bennett, 36, Marcie’s three children and significant other made a last-minute decision to hunker down.

All five Bennetts are safe and their house remains standing, Adams, 42, said Friday. Her sister’s neighbor’s home just two doors down on Laurel Lane in North Fort Myers is no more, however, Adams said.

The Bennett’s home, bolstered by a generator running out of gas, has become a sort of refuge for friends and neighbors who’ve shown up – 17, in total – in need of aid, Adams said. At least three of the visitors have lost their homes.

Aid is what Adams plans to bring with her as she makes the almost 25-hour trek south by herself this weekend. It will be about a 3-day trip.

“The most important thing that I’ve taken away from this is that it’s not about the distance, it’s not about the things, but it’s about the people and the sense of community that you build around you,” Adams said Friday as she recounted the past three days having on-and-off contact with her sister.

Marcie is 7 years Adams’ junior. Their mother, Maria Vinals, died in late 2011. Adams graduated from Genoa-Kingston High School, and Marcie from DeKalb High School. When her mother died, Marcie decided in 2012 to move to Florida, where they’d spent many family trips.

In years past, Adams said her sister usually packed up the family for hurricane season and flew to Elgin to stay with their brother. Marcie, now in nursing school, made a different call this week as the radar rapidly shifted. An 11:30 p.m. Monday phone call between the sisters revealed Marcie had planned to stay put, as the radar saw Ian moving north of where she lived. By the time the storm’s path shifted, flights out of Florida were growing increasingly pricey, about $600 a pop, Adams said.

About 4 a.m. Tuesday, Marcie’s emergency alert went off, urging evacuation.

“She told me, “I don’t want to get trapped with my kids,’ ” Adams said.

With stores rapidly emptying, Marcie found a gas station and bought six one-gallon jugs and about five cases of water, thinking that would be sufficient for her partner and children.

“However, as the hurricane hit and the storm started to press up, people starting showing up at their door,” Adams said.

Hurricane Ian hit the North Fort Myers area about 3 p.m. Wednesday. The Bennett home did not suffer structural damage that they’re aware of, although several trees are downed and some fell on the roof. Standing water hasn’t made it into the house. During a 20-minute reprieve in the eye, Adams said, several who’d taken shelter at Marcie’s home helped move the debris so that it formed a type of barrier for further water or storm damage.

In the days that followed, Adams has worked to be a calming presence for her sister and family, even from states away.

“I didn’t speak to her for, gosh, I don’t even know,” Adams said of Marcie. “Until [I received a text at] 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, and all it said was ‘I want you to know we’re safe, but I can’t find my dad.’ ”

Marcie’s dad lives in Matlacha, an 850-person old fishing town just outside Fort Myers that the Miami Herald reported was “flattened” in Ian’s wake.

Adams said her sister lost contact with her father, who had elected not to evacuate, for almost 24 hours. But luck, again, was on their side. Several volunteers disregarded ”stay away” orders and found Marcie’s dad, alive and safe, Thursday.

“I got her kind of talking and focusing on not the destruction, and just said ‘Look, what do you need now?’ And the first thing out of her mouth no hesitation was, ‘Water,’ ” Adams said.

Equipped with a list – water, toilet paper, rubber boots, non-perishable food items, gasoline, socks, underwear, sunblock, bug spray, coffee – Adams said her sister told her of her new house guests, ‘I wasn’t expecting all this company. You guys drank my last cold beer.’ ”

While the generator keeps the electricity on, for now, no one can take a shower, and those who lost their homes lost everything.

Late Friday, Adams said a phone call from her sister revealed that a nearby dam could be breaking, increasing worry that additional water could be headed toward the Bennett home.

How to help

Adams is soliciting community donations – whether items or monetary – until she leaves for Florida Sunday evening. Those wishing to donate can contact her via email at chapen3@yahoo.com or contact her for information on her CashApp, Paypal or Venmo. Adams said she’s driving solo, as her husband suffers from long-haul COVID-19 and she said she wants to shield her son, 16 and willing to help, from “seeing them pull dead bodies out of the water.”

Common Grounds coffee shop at 2180 Oakland Dr. Unit B in Sycamore will serve as a drop-off point for those wishing to donate to Adams’ cause this weekend.

Seven years her sister’s senior, Adams said she feels like she helped raise Marcie, and that’s what motivated her to make the trek.

“We can all help each other, whether it’s a thought, prayer, or anything else,” Adams said. “One thing my sister and I talked about where ‘The stuff might be gone, but the memories will always remain, no matter what.’”