Hurricane Ian survivor recounts fateful Florida trip that ended Nishelle Harris-Miles’ life
Nishelle Harris-Miles, her sister Roshelle and two lifelong friends planned a trip to Florida to celebrate the end of COVID and toast to some life milestones. No one knew their trip would end in disaster, powerless to the natural violence visited upon them by Hurricane Ian.
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For the first time, as the family of Harris-Miles gathers this weekend for her visitation and memorial service, LaQuitta Heard, one of the four women on that fateful trip, gave an account of what happened to News Center 7′s Mike Campbell.
The four missed their scheduled flight that Monday, but a motel manager called them and confirmed they would come instead on Tuesday.
That manager did not issue any warning or information about the storm heading directly toward Fort Myers.
“She never mentioned that the same Monday on the news the mayor declaring a state of emergency and everyone was due to be emergency evacuated,” Heard told Campbell.
She said they all knew there was trouble when they took an Uber to the motel and everything in town was boarded up . . . except their destination, the Hideaway Village Motel, a block off the beach.
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“We were set up , bamboozled,” Heard said. “We couldn’t leave. Once we were there, we were there.”
Heard said the manager’s actions seemed to show she knew they shouldn’t be there.
“She had good conscience and said ‘Hey, I am going to put you in a higher room.’ "
Heard and the other survivors did tell News Center 7 the manager did stay on the property during the storm -- and was swept away in flood waters with her dog. Both survived.
The four omen could only sit in their room -- with no food -- and watch the storm sweep in.
“We heard creaks in wall. We see water, walls coming down,” Heard said. “It was NeNe’s [Harris-Miles] idea to tie us together.”
Heard told Campbell the four made calls to their loves ones as 167-mph winds and 18 feet of storm surge poured in.
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“The bed starts to rise and the water rises so much we get smushed to the ceiling and our faces are being smashed and we can’t move,” Heard recalled as she began to weep.
The lower half of the room blew away. “Then we are in the roof for three blocks, spinning away,” she said, a spinning ride that stopped only when their piece of the motel became wedged against a house. They were still trapped when the building’s exposed foundation and nails began pressing against Harris-Miles.
“She’s talking for a while, she’s calm, she’s calm the whole time and then the last thing she says is ‘my neck, my neck,’ " Heard recalled.
Harris-Miles, 40 years old, died in her sister’s arms, Heard confirmed. It was Sept. 29.
The three survivors would not be rescued for another 12 to 14 hours.
Heard spoke to Campbell while seated next to Harris-Miles’ mother, Michele.
Campbell said Heard told him the deadly ordeal will never leave her.
“Every day, I can’t sleep, I can never get it out of my mind,” she said. “I have mixed emotions, guilt, shame.”
The homegoing for Harris-Miles of Dayton is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Donald Jordan Memorial Chapel in Jefferson Twp. The services were delayed because of the lengthy process of identifying her remains and making arrangements to have her brought back to Ohio.
