ESTERO, Fla. - After nearly two months, the shelter for Bonita Springs flood victims is closing.

Those residents were forced out of their homes back in August by sheet flow flooding from Tropical Storm Fay.

Tonight, just 27 people remain at the shelter. That’s down from over 400 a few weeks ago.

The shelter will close tomorrow, and by then, the Red Cross says all of the flood victims will have a place to live.

"We won't put anybody on the street,” volunteer Ginny Stubbs says.
Some of those people are leaving sooner, rather than later.

Tonight we sat down with Esther Garcia, just before she left the shelter for good.
She, like man of the other flood victims, will be living in a low rent apartment in Bonita Springs, but she says its not going to be easy.

"Its hard because the rent I was paying, it was cheap,” Garcia tells us through a Red Cross translator.

Still, she says she is happy to have a home, and thankful for all the help she’s received since her home at Manna Christian was flooded.

"The people that been helping us here all the time, they make us not think about all the hard situation,” Garcia says.

The Red Cross not only helped emotionally, but they tell us they spent over $300,000 to keep the shelter open since August 23rd.

"Everything that a business has, the Red Cross has to pay for too.

Gasoline,some salaries, benefits, supplies, everything that we feed,” Stubbs says.

While they are more than happy to help, volunteers say it’s good to see the shelter closing.

“In the end, nobody wants to live in a shelter any longer than they have to,” Stubbs says.

Of the $300,000 the Red Cross has spent here, they have received about $70,000 in donations locally to replenish that money, but they’re still looking for more.

The Red Cross says one way you can help is by bringing a bag lunch to work tomorrow, and donating the money you would normally spend on eating out to the Red Cross.

While the shelter is closing on Friday, the Red Cross says it will be available for assistance on Saturday, if they are needed, as well.