Migrant workers in Punta Gorda...

[berner59]

How could just 20 people have died...it just doesn't seem true... I'm convinced there are hundreds dead and these are poor migrant farmers who probably can't be traced to anyone but they shouldn't be forgotten...and this blurb mentions a lot of homeless also - where were they to go and how were they to have heard all the warnings?? Sad...

>>>In addition, some 700,000 elderly people were potentially in the storm's path.

Lesli Remaly, a CWS Disaster Response and Recovery Liaison, was already thinking about needs that could potentially go unnoticed. "There are lots of immigrants and migrant farm workers. There is a tremendous population of people working on the orange groves. There are Native Americans who will be affected."

People who can't speak English may not able to easily determine what aid is available to them, Remaly added.

In the long-term, people who have jobs in the service or tourism industry could see a tremendous negative economic impact, she said.

Homeless people were another population that could easily be forgotten, Remaly said. "Lots of people come to Florida hoping they'll find that job, and they don't."


http://www.disasternews.net/news/news.php?articleid=2334

[peekaloo]

1. Lots of the migrant workers are in North Carolina and Ohio

this time of year. At least that's what a caller to a local Tampa radio station confirmed on Monday. Their homes were probably destroyed but work goes north this time of year.

[Osama_Bin_Winnin]

2. The homeless people were being rounded up on buses around Tampa

the night before the storm. Now they're back in their usual places. Maybe they were moved to shelters in Punta Gorda too.