The Gavin family arrived on Sanibel over 100 years ago, one of the first two black families to settle on the idyllic island that dangles off the west coast of Florida like a fishing hook.

Ahead of the hurricane, Oscar and Myra Jean Gavin, both in their 70s, packed up as many belongings as they could fit in their car and crossed the thin causeway that connects Sanibel to the mainland to ride out the storm in a friend's Fort Myers condominium.

But a deeper link may have been harmed as well - one that ties the Gavin family to the history and culture of Sanibel.

"Our family has been a fixture of that community for a very long time," said their daughter, Phoebe.

The first Gavins, Hannah and Isaiah, arrived on the barrier island in 1917.

"It was mostly dirt roads and farms," Phoebe said.

Over the years, members of the family founded landscaping companies and owned restaurants.

Segregation, Jim Crow era - the "more challenging moments in American history" - those things "played out on Sanibel" too, said Phoebe.

Irving Gavin, another member of the sprawling family, recalled to the island's local newspaper in 2017 a time when his father was young.

For generations, "people really knew the Gavins because of their place and their history", said Phoebe, who lives in Washington, DC.

Fewer and fewer middle- and working-class residents like the Gavins are able to make ends meet, their daughter said.

Phoebe estimated that somewhere between 20 and 30 family members still lived on the island.

Phoebe knew her parents had left Sanibel for Fort Myers ahead of the storm, and they had texted as they settled into their friends' apartment.

When she hadn't heard from her parents, Phoebe turned to Twitter for help.

As for the other family members who live on Sanibel, Phoebe believes they left safely before the storm.

Like others who left Sanibel, the Gavins don't know when or if they will return.

"Obviously the psychological trauma of going through something like this is always difficult," Phoebe said.

NEW UPDATE: The snowbird church member who let my #Sanibel parents shelter in his #FortMyers home is letting them stay for as long as they need – even if it's months.

"My parents might be homeless, but they aren't houseless," Phoebe tweeted, along with a video of her and her mother