Thousands of Indians in hurricane Irma’s path

Washington: Millions of people, including thousands of Indian-Americans, in Florida, braced for “life- threatening” Hurricane Irma which hit the state’s southern islands as a category four storm after leaving a trail of destruction across the Caribbean. It is expected to pummel the low-lying Florida Keys with winds reaching 130mph, before travelling north-west up Florida’s Gulf Coast. More than 6.3 million people were told to evacuate Florida, with warnings of a huge storm surge that would be “life-threatening” to anyone in its path. Irma has already devastated parts of the Caribbean with at least 25 deaths. About 60 Indian nationals are being evacuated from the vacation island of St Martin in the Caribbean. Around 120,000 Indian-Americans reside across Florida while thousands of them live in the now-dangerous zones of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa. Miami and Tampa turned into “ghost towns” as nervous residents, many of whom struggled to cope with abandoning their homes, moved to safer places following mandatory evacuation notices. The National Weather Service said Irma regained strength as a Category 4 storm – after being downgraded to Category 3 for more than 12 hours – as it moved to Florida. The Indian embassy in the US has opened a round-the-clock helpline number and rushed senior diplomats to Atlanta to lead relief efforts for Indian-Americans stuck in the region. The hotline number is 202-258-8819. Embassy officials said India’s Ambassador to the US Navtej Sarna was closely monitoring the situation. US President Donald Trump reviewed preparedness with his cabinet colleagues at Camp David in Maryland. He asked federal and state agencies to expedite assistance to affected areas. “This is a storm of enormous destructive power, and I ask everyone in the storm’s path to pay heed to all instructions from government officials,” Trump said. Florida Governor Rick Scott asked people to move out of the danger zones as soon as possible. “The state has never seen anything like this. The storm’s surge can kill you.”