BONITA SPRINGS, Fla. (WSVN) — The Hurricane Ian Disaster Relief Drive, organized by the Mayor of Sweetwater and radio personality Mobile Mike, delivered all the donations from earlier this week to affected areas on the west coast of Florida.

Volunteers, local leaders and law enforcement officers gathered at the Pembroke Gardens Mall as pallets of donated goods were loaded onto trucks, Friday morning.

Fifteen semi-trucks were loaded with necessities like tarps, garbage bags, first-aid kits, flashlights, food, water, batteries and blankets.

The loaded vehicles were escorted by police officers at 6 a.m. to head to the cities on the west coast.

“We’re headed right over to Lee County in Fort Myers Beach to bring them 15 semis full of stuff and a stack of checks,” said Mike “Mobile Mike” Breden. “We’re super excited to be able to help those people over there. We haven’t slept, but it really doesn’t matter.”

The initial drop-off site opened in Sweetwater at Dolphin Mall on Monday and Tuesday; the donation drive set up another drop-off location in Pembroke Pines as many in South Florida continued to support Hurricane Ian victims.

“We all saw the images on TV [and] we rolled over to the west coast about a week and a half ago,” said Mobile Mike. “We saw everything [and] lived there for four days — came back here. We saw the need for what they really needed, and we got together and here we are.”

Sweetwater Mayor Orlando Lopez headed to Southwest Florida with the caravan to help unload supplies.

“When a hurricane strikes, we band together. We come together, and we make sure we help our neighbors,” said Lopez. “Its really bad, it’s detrimental. This community is going to take forever to get back together, so as often and as quickly as we can get back over here and bring the necessary materials, we’re going to do this as quickly as possible.”

Their first stop was Fort Myers Beach where locations were already set up to unload the donations.

At the same time, more than 20 water utility workers from Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department rode along with the rest of the group to get water services back up in the affected areas.

“The priority right now is water, obviously. The devastation is severe,” said Lazaro Cabrera with the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department.

“We’ve now been able to offer search-and-rescue assistance, police assistance and now this essential team of people to restore water — to restore life to the community,” said Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.

Crews will work block by block with the town, through all of the devastation in order to get water flowing for when people are eventually allowed to return to the island.

“We need to reestablish their transmission system, their distribution system, identify the leaks and get everything cleared up,” said Cabrera.

The water utility workers will also help with other infrastructure issues in the area.

“Up there, I was with the utility directors on Tuesday,” said Cabrera. “We laid out this plan [and] worked with them. [We] scouted the whole area, and I can tell you that it is a huge task, but one we’re happy to take on.”

Meanwhile, at a church distribution center in Fort Myers, volunteers continued to hand out supplies to many residents, thanks to Global Empowerment Mission.

“One of the biggest needs is mattresses, tents, mosquito repellent, right? So very area of Fort Myers has different needs,” said Michael Capponi with GEM.

People lined up off of Martin Luther King Boulevard in the city to pick up donations sent from Southeast Florida organizations; they have each received 2,000 meals and cleaning supplies.

New pictures showed Broward County Public Schools employees working to bring Lee County schools back up to speed before students return later this month.

Fort Myers residents said their electricity is back on and water started to flow again, but whatever food remained in the refrigerators had to be trashed.

“Mostly our fridge is quite empty, so that’s why we’re coming here every single day to get food and put it in our refrigerator,” said Hilary Trunne, a resident of Lehigh Acres. “We’re feeding five families, and we’re trying to get some food to our other neighbors as well.”

Another Lehigh Acres resident, Jeremías Batista, is grateful for the donations.

“I wasn’t able to work for over a week, so I had to dip into my savings,” said Batista. “I’m kinda broke right now, so all of this is drastically helpful, because I don’t have anything really to provide for my family.”

Down in Naples, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital employees arrived with nurse scrubs for medical staff at a local hospital. They also unloaded 20 pallets of bottled water.

“When a disaster like this happens, of course, we would step in, lean in and help the community,” said Nicklaus Children’s Health System CEO Matthew Love.

Many front-like workers worked while their homes are damaged.

“We have partners now. To see all of you with the T-shirts and see Matt Love,” said Paula Grigoli with Naples Community Hospital.

GEM officials said they’re committed to send more than 70 trucks of food and supplies to Southwest Florida through the month of October.

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