“Months later, the students whose homes were devastated

by the 2017 Hurricane Season still

don’t have closure.”

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. —When Hurricane Irma made landfall in Florida in September of this
year, the impact was felt statewide and the effort to rebuild started immediately. Unfortunately
for our southern neighbors in the Caribbean, the devastation continued with Jose, and then Maria
and finally Philippe.

The student body of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida felt the
impact of each of these storms. Many of them have friends who are from the Caribbean Islands,
and there is even a club on campus aptly named The Caribbean Students Association, or CSA for
short, with a total of about 40-50 members from all over the Islands. The club meets every
Thursday at 7pm.

Many are from Cuba and Puerto Rico, where the hurricanes caused a large amount of damage,
but there are also members from Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Bahamas, Barbuda, Guyana,
St. Kitts and Nevis, Monserez, Dominica, Haiti, U.S. V.I., and Jamaica.

According to the CSA Faculty Advisor, Kenneth Hunt, there were 11 members of the club that
were directly affected by at least one of the hurricanes this year, many of their islands still don’t
have power, even now 3 months later. A few were left without homes entirely.

“The Caribbean usually gets hit pretty hard by storms,” said Merafelina Chotoo, a Trinidadian
Aerospace Engineering student and the president of the CSA. “It’s just a regular thing. But this
time it was just one after the other, so many in a row, so many and so powerful.”

Chotoo was also the main orchestrator of the clubs fundraising and support efforts after the
hurricanes hit this fall.

Directly after all of the storms had passed the CSA worked with the Interfaith club on campus to
hold an Interfaith Prayer Service for the students whose families were effected because Chotoo
noticed that a lot of her members were very somber and completely disconnected from life.

“It got me to thinking,” she said. “That we needed something to show the members, especially
the ones that lost their homes, at least something to show that we care about them, even if we
can’t do a lot.”

She decided to reach out to the Center for Faith & Spirituality for help because of the diverse
religious and cultural backgrounds throughout the Caribbean islands. With help from their
Faculty Advisor the CSA managed to pull a huge crowd.
“It was a huge success,” Chotoo said. “It was a kind of breakthrough moment where everyone
finally got hit with the situation and it was a very emotional moment. I think that that was an
incredibly important thing to have happen.”

Once Chotoo had ensured that her members were in the process of healing, she decided to start
holding fundraisers for the islands that were most heavily affected.

The club started by getting involved with Project Haiti, a group that builds and installs solar
powered water purifiers in Haitian villages to provide clean water to the citizens. Chotoo has
been involved for years so she explained that it was fairly easy to get the rest of the members
involved.

From there the CSA decided to begin fundraising efforts on their campus, with an event every
Tuesday called “Taste the Caribbean Tuesdays”. Members of the club cooked foods from their
native countries and sold it in the center of Campus.

“Each month we had a specific country we wanted to donate to,” Said Chotoo. “So the first
month was Puerto Rico and Cuba, so we had a member from Puerto Rico and a member from
Cuba and they helped me make arroz con pollo and tostones.”

The club also made Trinidadian and Guyanese dishes, although the money raised from those
months went mostly to Barbuda, which was completely wiped out by the storm, Chotoo
explained.

According to Chotoo the club has only managed to raise a couple hundred dollars so far, but has
donated that money to the Florida Caribbean Students Association, which is their parent
organization.

They have also done a blanket drive to collect blankets and have collected goods such as
coloring books and school supplies as well to send back to the islands.

“If we can’t get much money,” Chotoo said. “At least they can’t say that we don’t care and that
we did not try.”

Although she admitted that they did not raise as much money as they had hoped, she was still
very proud of the efforts that the club has made so far and also explained that they will continue
fundraising efforts when school starts back up.

Until that time, however, there are still many students who must go back to their countries, many
without power, some without roofs.

According to Chotoo most of the ports have been damaged beyond use and for a lot of the
smaller nations that is the only means to get in and out of the country.
“I think [going home] will be an eye opening experience for them that they will never forget,”
Hunt said. “And I think it will be a significant emotional event for them and honestly it will
probably be life changing.”

Hunt explained that as the Faculty Advisor he helped a lot of students with the initial shock,
helped them cope and also helped them get back to normal, even while they worried about their
families.

"I shared with them that as a parent I know that if I’m experiencing something as emotionally
devastating as that,” Hunt said. “But I know that my son or daughter in another location is fine
and taken care of then that gives me peace of mind.”

He also explained that he has a strong feeling that he will need to be a major support beam when
the students come back to school as well after they are hit with the reality of everything for a
second time.

“People need to realize that it’s not like America where if a disaster happens you can drive up
state or leave and evacuate to a different state.” Chotoo said. “There is no where to go.”

No where to go but up, that is.