Before Dorian, Florida groups help immigrants get prepared

As Hurricane Dorian headed toward Florida, Natividad Jimenez sat in front of a microphone to tape a message in an Ancient Maya language that few in the world understand but that’s spoken by thousands of immigrants in the state.

In her native Mam, Jimenez was urging Guatemalan immigrants to get water, cash, and gas and to follow any evacuation orders in areas with mobile homes where many immigrants live in the city of Lake Worth, less than 5 miles from Donald Trump’s winter home Mar-a-Lago.

The messages recorded in three different indigenous languages will be sent as mass emergency text notifications, and broadcast on speakers in fire trucks around low-income communities.

“Many Guatemalans live in mobile homes. As much as you tell them to please seek shelter, they sometimes don’t get it. But maybe the fire truck will help,” Jimenez said.

Floridians have frantically stocked up on gas to power generators and water to drink and cook with, as Dorian strengthened into a major hurricane. Forecasts early Saturday suggested the storm would hug Florida’s east coast and spare it the worst effects of a direct hit, while still menacing it with dangerous storm surge.

However, communities near the coast, including Lake Worth, were still in the cone of potential storm pathways forecast by the National Hurricane Center in Miami as of Saturday morning, and a direct hit on the state was still possible.

Charity groups were worried about vulnerable populations along the eastern coast who tend to have fewer resources to prepare ahead of major storms. They include Central American immigrants in Lake Worth and Jupiter, elderly people in retirement communities all the way up the coast, and homeless people in parks.

Lawmakers are going to Spanish-language radio stations asking people to go through the hurricane plan with older relatives who live by themselves. Teachers are telling immigrant children to explain to their parents what they need to have in their hurricane kit. Tutors who normally pay visits to teach young children have switched gears to hurricane-proof homes and explain the location of shelters and hospitals.

Nongovernmental organizations have also launched a website to text alerts in Spanish and Haitian Creole and set up three locations to receive supplies to hand out to those in need after the hurricane passes.

The nonprofit organization Guatemalan-Maya Center estimates that as many as 10,000 Guatemalans of the 20,000 who concentrate in Palm Beach County are speaking an indigenous language and have troubles understanding Spanish, a language Florida officials have mastered when disaster strikes.