An Ohio woman who traveled to Florida to celebrate a milestone birthday was one of at least 101 American victims killed by the ravaging Hurricane Ian, the Category 4 storm that ripped through the Caribbean and American South at the end of September. She died from injuries sustained by the winds and torrential rains caused the roof to collapse on the house she was staying at.

Nishelle Harris-Miles traveled to Fort Myers with her cousin Chantel Maston and two other women to have fun in the sun after her 40th birthday. The group came from Dayton, Ohio, as the storm was nearing with plans to have the ultimate girls trip, but the bad weather prohibited them from doing much more than clinging together in the Airbnb to stay safe, according to the Daily Mail.

Tuesday, Sept. 27 was the last time they spoke to family members, a day before the storm made landfall near Fort Myers in southwest Florida, the hardest-hit region in the state.

While the ladies were taking cover, the roof collapsed in and crashed on Harris-Miles, piercing a major artery in her heart with a nail from the structure.

On Friday, Sept. 23, Harris-Miles, whose nickname was Nene, celebrated her life, and a less than a week later on Thursday, Sept. 29, she lost it.

Maston explained, “We strapped ourselves to each other with a sheet, laid on the mattress. 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.”

The experience was captured on Facebook Live, showing her “friends” and “followers” the water as it started to rapidly flood into the room.

The cousin said, “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.” 

Suddenly, another part of the roof fell in and that is when Harris-Miles was injured.

The cousin shared with WLWT how the tragedy unfolded.

“She got trapped under. A nail pierced her main artery,” Maston disclosed. “She just turned 40. Sept. 23, she just turned 40.”

LaQuitta Heard, who was also on the trip, said to WHIO TV 7, “Went for peace and came back broken, lost, confused, guilty … I personally will never be the same again.”

“I had to watch her slowly die while we were being emerged in 18 feet of water with winds at a speed of 167 mph,” Heard said, before sharing “words can’t explain” what she and the other women went through.

The party was stuck in the home with her dead body for 12 to 14 hours before being rescued and most were able to travel home the next day Friday, Sept. 30.

Harris-Miles’ body remained in Florida.

On Sunday, Oct. 2, a balloon release was set up in Harris-Miles’ honor at her Dayton home, according to a post her daughter made on Facebook.

As of Monday, over one hundred people have died because of the storm. In Lee County, Florida, according to Sheriff Carmine Marceno, 54 people were killed. Charlotte County, Florida, reported 24 casualties, while eight people in Collier County, five in Volusia County, three in Sarasota County, two in Manatee County, and one each in Lake, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough, and Polk counties, all in Florida, have lost their lives, CNN reports. The storm also caused deaths in the Carolinas.