Maria Reyes, 26, arrived at the Estero Community Center on Tuesday morning.
She came not to work out in its gym or to make crafts, but to flee the rising floodwaters at her Camp Saldivar mobile home park in Bonita Springs.
She is one of 426 Tropical Storm Fay flood victims from Bonita Springs who were forced to make the center home.
"It's very hard, especially with a baby. He cries at night," Reyes said in Spanish. She came to the shelter with her husband, Antonio Fernandez, and her sons Adrian Cruz, 5, and Jode Cruz, 1. "We keep hearing that the water is getting higher."
The community center became an American Red Cross shelter as water levels rose and victims had to evacuate. It's the first time the center has been used for such a purpose since it opened in 2006.
Reyes had plans to stay in her home until flood waters became knee deep on her 5-foot, 5-inch frame.
"We are worried that we have lost everything," said Reyes. "We didn't take anything. We had no time."
Reyes worries mirror those of the others in the shelter. They are preoccupied with the condition of their homes, little to no clothing for their children or prospects for the future.
Jose Uvalle de la Portill, 65, said he only brought the khaki shorts and striped polo he was wearing.
"It's hard at first, but thank God we are better now," Uvalle said in Spanish. He has spent a week at the shelter with his wife Juanna.
She doesn't expect to go home to a flooded Manna Christian trailer and applied for state aid at laptop stations set up at the shelter. Flood victims can receive food stamps and cash assistance.
"My husband is on disability, and we don't know what we will get," said Juanna Uvalle, who showed valid identification that she was documented and in the flood area.
Identification is not requested when victims enter the shelter, said Jan George, the shelter manager from the American Red Cross.
"Some of them might be undocumented ... when we start opening cases for assistance, they have to show something that has the correct address on it," George said. "It's unclear when the first victims will begin to receive state aid."
In the meantime, victims are being given a cot, blanket and hygiene kits to make their stay more comfortable.
"We don't give them pillows, so they won't be getting a mint on it," said Mariann Kircher, mass care shelter manager for the Red Cross.
Three meals - one of them hot - a day are also being provided.
"We are working with a Mexican caterer to offer some Spanish meals" (today), said Kathy Maloney, who works as a kitchen manager at the shelter's mess hall. "They don't eat the bread on their sandwiches. They take it out and put meat in the tortillas."
Parents are having a tough time feeding small children who eat mostly potatoes and hot stews.
"He doesn't eat sandwich bread, and he doesn't like cereal," said Reyes, reiterating that she is appreciative of the volunteers' efforts.
Hungry kids are also harder to entertain and groups such as the Bonita Literacy Council drop by during the day and put on reading and singing programs for tots.
"We have been trying to keep them occupied," George said. She estimates that there is a three to one ratio of children to every adult.
"It's a lot of kids for one shelter," she said.
Reyes and her family are losing hope - and quickly, she said.
"We don't want to think that, but you have to prepare for the future," said Reyes, adding that she isn't sure how they will pay for rent if they're forced to go somewhere else. "We haven't heard anything and we have no radio or television."
Red Cross volunteers said operating out of Estero for the first time was not a problem.
"It doesn't matter where we are," said George.
But the Red Cross will be more familiar with the facility next time, George said.
"Now that we know what rooms are available and their sizes, we'll have a better idea of where to place our staff, our sick room, the whole nine yards," George said.
Turning into a shelter meant canceling classes offered there, said David Gibbons, a senior maintenance specialist.
Otherwise, the inconvenience was minimal, Gibbons said.
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