A Special Thank You

Jim,

Thank you. I have a quick story for you about how NCH helped us in the middle of Hurricane Ian. 

On Wednesday as the storm surge was coming in and homes started flooding on Marco, our Fire Rescue personnel were in our one and only high-water vehicle going to homes and rescuing people. Our goal was to get them to a County shelter, but the roads were so flooded there was no way to get them there. Some of our residents even left their homes and waded in waist deep water to get to the police station because their homes were flooding. We ended up with over 30 (I forget the actual count, maybe 40+) people in our police lobby, including five dogs and four cats, and many children. They came with nothing. No extra clothes, no food, nothing. Most were wet and scared. I called Katelyn at the NCH clinic across from City Hall and asked if we could “break in” and get blankets for these folks. Of course she did not hesitate. The Fire Marshal, Jennifer Pierce and I got in a Fire brush truck and went to NCH to get blankets, towels, and sheets. We even found bags of popcorn in the kitchen and we took those too! We took everything we could find that might help these people. These families ended up sleeping on our floor or in chairs, and the next day we either got them home or to a shelter. But at least they had a blanket – thanks to your team!

It was a very scary 24 hours (or five days) here on Marco, but now we are in recovery. We’re making repairs, cleaning up, and responding to electrical fires as the power comes back on. We are still very busy, but so grateful. And NCH played a role in saving our residents the other night. Thank you.

Also, we returned all the blankets, sheets, and towels (unwashed), and I had our purchasing manager buy a bunch of snacks and deliver them to the clinic yesterday.

I hope you and your Naples team are doing okay. 

Let me know if I can help anyone at NCH or the City of Naples.

Casey