Friday 19 / April / 2024
Muscat: Omani students in hurricane-hit Florida have got their allowances a month early, to help them deal with the crisis, the Ministry of Higher Education announced.
“In its efforts to improve the student’s situation throughout the crisis, the Cultural Attache has given out October’s allowance to all the students in Florida,” the Ministry of Higher Education said.
Students who had to evacuate Florida to escape Hurricane Irma will be compensated, said the Ministry of Higher Education.
“The cultural attaché told us that we should evacuate and not worry about the expenses of transport and accommodation, they will compensate us for our hotels, petrol or flight ticket,” an Omani student from the University of South Florida said.
Omani students have been advised to evacuate Florida as Hurricane Irma gets closer to the state.
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In Pictures: Hurricane Irma wreaks havoc in Florida
“We want to assure parents that their children in Florida are safe and that their situation is under control. They will be compensated for their expenses during this crisis after submitting the student’s receipts by the end of this week and next week,” the Cultural Attache in Washington said.
“The embassy told us about the hurricane on Wednesday and that is when all the planning started; the next day we got an email from them telling us to evacuate and not to worry about the expenses,” the Omani student added.
Also read: Irma floods northeast Florida, leaves millions without power
Reem, a student in Florida said: “We continuously got loads of emails, from one side we had the University sending us about four emails every hour and on the other hand the consulate sent us three emails, one telling us that we will be covered, the second on Thursday telling told us to evacuate, and the last email was them asking if anyone is staying in Florida.”
Many Omani students were forced to flee to other states.
“It took us five hours to get out of Florida when it should have only taken us three or two hours. The entire journey should have taken us 13 to 14 hours, but because everyone was leaving it took us 18 hours as the roads were very crowded,” Reem said.
“As far as my Omani friends, most of them left for D.C. or Georgia, for the ones in Georgia now have to evacuate from there also because the hurricane might hit Georgia eventually,” Reem added.
Discussing when she will return to Florida, Reem said: “We’re monitoring it as it goes along, the university gave us off until Tuesday, so we are waiting for updates from them and checking the news.
“We will probably return the day after tomorrow.”
