Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
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Palm Beach County shelters open at 10 a.m.
While some people are evacuating to the north and others are fortifying their homes and staying there, other people are waiting out the storm at one of Broward’s 14 shelters which opened noon Thursday.
A line of about 20 people formed Thursday outside the shelter at Fox Trail Elementary School off Nob Hill Road in Davie before that shelter opened.
Lillian Green, 77, waiting in line with her husband Fred, 86, said she’s lived in Florida since 1948 and isn’t taking any chances.
Despite the incredible damage caused by Hurricane Andrew, Green thinks this one could be worse. Her biggest fear this time: the wind.
“I hate the wind and I have a feeling the wind is going to do a great deal of damage,” she said.
“It’s going to uproot everything and if it picks up the cars, like a tornado, it’ll slam it into things. It’ll be very dangerous because of that high, high, high, wind.”
It’s her second time in a shelter after working for the Red Cross at an elementary school in Sunrise when Hurricane Andrew hit the state.
Green and her husband came to the shelter because of construction material left near their condo is Sunrise.
“They left a hole, they didn’t fix it and on the walkway which is concrete on the corner, a huge chunk broke off and fell down by the mailboxes on the ground floor,” she said.
She doesn’t think their building is structurally safe to withstand the storm.
“I figure it’ll come through and blow me to kingdom come,” she said.
Also in line were Eugene Berthiaume and his wife Maria.
The couple, ages, 75 and 71, are spending the weekend in the shelter because they’re leery of high winds forecasters are predicting and the fact that they don’t have impact glass or shutters for their doors and windows.
“You can get sucked out,” Eugene Berthiaume said as he laughed. “Fortunately in this area, it’s not as intense as in Miami.”
He’s never been through anything like this but his wife lived in Kendall, in Miami-Dade County, when Andrew hit in 1992.
Instead of going to a shelter, she and several others huddled together in the bathroom of a two- story house, terrified as the wind tore the roof off.
“Andrew was catastrophic. We were ready to die,” Maria Berthiaume said.
“It was horrific so we don’t want to go through that again.”
Maria said anyone who thinks they might be in danger should just come to a shelter.
Eugene thinks staying at the shelter will be safer than going with relatives in Boynton Beach or Miami.
While concern for Irma appears to be widespread with long lines at gas stations and empty shelves at supermarkets, Ronald Prince, 67, of Dania, isn’t worried.
Sitting outside the shelter at Atlantic Technical College Arthur Ashe Jr. Campus on Thursday afternoon, Prince recounted staying home when Hurricane Andrew hit Florida, despite not having impact glass or shutters at his home.
Someone concerned for him gave him a call the next morning.
“My phone rang at 6 o’clock in the morning. Someone from Alabama calling to see if I was all right. I said, my phone rang? My lights are on? God is always on my side.”
He’s staying at the shelter not so much for safety but more for the experience, he says.
“I’m not worried about damage too much because the eye is going to be out in the Atlantic Ocean and we’re all going to be subjected to rain and wind,” he said.
After Hurricane Andrew, he said everyone was running around like chickens with their heads cut off.
Prince, who moved to Florida from Michigan shortly before Andrew, said he didn’t buy food or water in preparation back then.
He expects to be in the shelter for a few days before heading back home.
Inside the shelter, Prince describes the atmosphere as calm, cool and quiet with friendly people and plenty of law enforcement.
There aren’t any cots in the shelter and Prince said some people who didn’t bring any bedding are sleeping on the floor.
“The people are nice. I mean, they’re not physically panicking but from conversations, I can tell that they’re frightened,” he said.
Lillian Green isn’t sure how many days she and her husband might be in the shelter but she’ll be keeping herself busy and might be volunteering again with the Red Cross.
“I’ll get out as soon as I can get out but I don’t know what my building or apartment is going to look like,” she said.
If her home is destroyed, she hopes to find a local hotel.
“Being in a shelter is no walk in the park but I don’t want to go down with the ship. If the apartment goes down, the hell with it. I don’t want to go down,” she said.
Shelters in Palm Beach County are opening 10 a.m. today.