Windsorites caught in path of massive Hurricane Irma
Families calling for evacuation of storm victims in the Caribbean
The Canadian government must do more to rescue citizens trapped without power and running water on the Hurricane Irma-battered island of St. Martin, say Windsorites who have friends and family with little food and no way home.
As the largest Atlantic storm ever measured begins its assault on Florida, Alec Raniwsky says St. Martin — where he studies at the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine — was left without working infrastructure.
The 24-year-old medical student made it home to Windsor but estimates 100 Canadians remain on the island, including two fellow students from Windsor holed up at the AUC campus. They have no power or running water and face dwindling supplies in 40C heat since Irma walloped St. Martin Tuesday night.
“It’s frustrating to know that they’re still there,” said Raniwsky, part of a group social media chat with fellow students who say American authorities have begun evacuations for U.S. citizens. “People have gotten out but we can’t get our people out. And we have so many resources to do it.”
One Canadian posted a video on Facebook Sunday with her sister, who fought tears at the St. Martin airport where she was once again turned away. Raniwsky shared the video, adding his own urging: “This is seriously disgusting, Justin Trudeau we need your help!!”
Another Canadian posted concerns a day earlier about the lack of help coming from the Canadian government. Reports of looting on the island have made the atmosphere even more tense.
Raniwsky managed to board a flight from St. Martin last Monday with a friend, flying to Panama, then to Montreal, where they took a train to Toronto and finally Windsor — a last-minute, two-day journey. But flights out of St. Martin now are rare and fully booked.
Some castaways have discussed hopping a boat to another island — but how?
“The violence has settled down because the military is there but they’re still running low on resources,” Raniwsky said Sunday. “They haven’t showered in forever. It’s hot. So I’m worried about them. We just want to get them home.”
As of Sunday night, the federal government had not arranged for a Canadian military evacuation.
“As airports in the affected region resume operations, we continue to work with airline companies to co-ordinate the departure of Canadian citizens,” Natasha Nystrom, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada, said in an emailed response.
“We encourage Canadians to contact their airline company for the latest information on scheduled departures. We also continue to co-ordinate with other countries who are already in the area to facilitate Canadian departures.”
Lacey Cranston says her LaSalle parents, Darrell and Debbie Sheppy, were the only two people out of 148 on their St. Martin resort not evacuated Saturday.
Why? Because they are Canadians and the American military would not provide them a ride.
“The resort staff took my parents back to the resort and they were taken care of,” Cranston said Sunday. “But there were gunshots heard overnight in the area. When they woke up this morning it was deemed unsafe. So the resort staff took them to the airport and left them there.”
The Dutch military, meanwhile, will not let anyone in the building because it does not have power.
“They had no food and only three 500-ml bottles of water for the duration of the day,” Cranston said.
“So it’s quite bad. My father has a heart condition. He’s doing OK because he has medication for now. But they aren’t being given information. They aren’t being helped. They’re stuck.”
Where will they sleep Sunday night?
“They are planning on hunkering down in the parking lot of the airport for the evening because it’s almost impossible to get around,” Cranston said.
“There’s no safety on the streets. There’s looting. There’s violence. There’s issues there.”
Cranston has only managed to speak to her parents briefly since one of their phones has died and the other is about to, and cell service is spotty.
She spoke to her father for two minutes Sunday morning.
“His exact quote was, ‘Get me the hell out of here,’ ” she said, noting that she has had no success through repeated calls to Global Affairs Canada. “I’m feeling frustrated and scared for my parents. Anything we can do at this point to put pressure on the government needs to be done.”
Meanwhile, a former Windsorite who now lives in Melbourne, Fla. — on the east coast, about the same latitude as Tampa — has covered his windows and doors with plywood as Irma plows up the state.
“It does get scary,” Rick Keelan, the advertising sales manager of a weekly newspaper and former Windsor Star artist who moved to Florida in 2012, said Sunday. “It sounds like a train going by.” Keelan’s stepdaughter in Miami has already lost a palm tree and half a fence, as winds pick up in his city.
He lost power for three days when Hurricane Matthew struck Florida last year, but he says all indications suggest Hurricane Irma will pack a worse punch.
“Right now there are seven tornadoes out in the ocean moving inland,” Keelan said.
“They’re small but still, they do damage.”
Keelan and his wife have prepared a hurricane kit — flashlights, batteries, canned food and lots of water — but still worry what the monster storm will unleash. “This one is way bigger,” he said. “This is definitely going to do more damage.”
Irma, at one point a Category 5 hurricane with winds up to 300 km/h and storm surges of up to 15 feet, has weakened slightly but remains ferocious as it smashes into the United States.
A number of Windsorites, such as retirees Laura and Dave Broad, own property in Florida.
They are in Windsor closely following news of Irma.
“We’re so worried about our friends and neighbours,” said Laura, whose Florida home in North Fort Myers sits in Irma’s crosshairs.
“We live in a community of 900 homes. It’s a seniors community. And they’re manufactured homes, which means they’re more vulnerable to the storm and the wind and everything.
“It’s very doubtful we’ll have anything left when we go back.”