Florida Trinis brace for Hurricane Frances

DOZENS of Trinidad and Tobago nationals in Florida yesterday found themselves caught up in the chaos caused by Hurricane Frances which was last night due to hit land. Frances is a thousand miles wide and threatens the whole State of Florida with both high winds and possible flooding, having killed two people in the Bahamas. Sunday Newsday contacted a group of Trinidadian students at university in Florida who were facing the imminent storm. While Florida Governor Jeb Bush had ordered some 2.5 million Floridans to evacuate their homes, this group of Trinidadians opted to stay put and bunker down.

Since leaving Bahamas the hurricane has been moving very slowly at just 5 mph and had moreso been downgraded from category 4 to category 2 with its top wind speed similarly falling from 145 mph to 105 mph. But it has lashed Florida with rains, its plodding pace threatening disastrous flooding. Sunday Newsday called Fort Lauderdale to ask Meagan Monsegue, 18, fresher at the Florida International University (FIU), how she felt about awaiting the now-late storm. “Right now I’m in the house and feel safe. But on the outside it’s not safe, and there are many trees broken by the winds.”

Her group was monitoring weather reports on the TV news.  The electricity supply to the area had been continually fluctuating on-and-off the whole day, she said. “Florida is in a state of emergency. We are on a curfew from 10 pm to 6 am. “People are getting irritated by staying indoors so long. The hurricane is taking so long to come.” She said forecasts saw the storm hitting hard everywhere between Fort Lauderdale and Orlando. “It’s coming directly our way,” she said, quite calmly. Even before the storm has hit, she said, its winds had caused much damage. “We walked around the neighbourhood and saw a ‘ton’ of broken trees. A lot of people still have their cars parked outside of their driveway and these are at risk. You can see many cars damaged by falling trees.”

Monsegue said elsewhere in Broward County, there had been many storm surges of seawater. “Most of Broward County has been evacuated because they are so close to the sea. It is expected to hit hard. I expect a lot of flooding. We are not close to the sea and so have not been evacuated.” Was she worried? “Yes...when we watch the news. When we see the results from the Bahamas and see what Miami and different counties are going through.” She said that her American neighbours seemed calm. “Hurricane Charley didn’t hit this coast. People are comparing Frances to Hurricane Andrew from five years ago. But Florida has got a lot more secure now. People are ready.” Monsegue noted that many people were not bothering to try to flee the hurricane because it was so vast. “It’s the size of Texas and will hit the whole of Florida.” But otherwise she had seen a lot of traffic heading out of the state, adding: “A couple of my friends flew out to New Jersey.”

So what was the mood? “Some people are thrill-seekers, going outside to see how strong the winds are. Some are even on the beach. There is a strong police presence, including a lot of police helicopters in the air.” She recalled seeing some terrifying fork lightning which had lit up the whole sky as if daylight. “None of us had ever seen that in Trinidad. We were scared out of our minds” she said. “Right now the rain comes and goes, from hard to moderate. It’s not too scary at the moment, just the winds. “You see light poles sway from side to side, and stop-signs being blown over. On the news I saw cranes up in the sky are loose and are spinning in the wind. It’s pretty extreme!” University-mate of the Trini group, American Matthew Valero, recalled trying to prepare for the storm and facing panic-buying.

“We went to the supermarket and there was no bread and no water available. We tried to go to Home Depot to buy plywood but there was a seven-hour wait. Instead we used a wooden gate in our backyard to board up the windows.” Trinidadian Melissa Khan said: “I feel pretty safe. We were outside and the winds were very strong. We held a tree and felt it would blow down. It’s kind of scary. It’s alright. I’m scared about when the real hurricane hits. I’m optimistic we will be okay.” Meanwhile Tropical Storm Ivan is over the Atlantic Ocean with winds of 60 mph and could reach Barbados on Tuesday as a hurricane.