SANFORD, Fla. — The first flight of Floridians fleeing from Haiti touched down in Central Florida Wednesday evening.
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This comes as attacks by armed groups catapult the island nation into chaos.
Right now, rescue operations are underway and Florida is stepping in to speed up the effort.
The state began chartering flights to get Floridians and American Citizens out of the unsafe conditions.
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14 people, eight children and six adults, landed at Orlando-Sanford International Airport.
“We’re finally reunited with Julien, our 2-year-old son,” said Philippe Armand.
Armand and Olivia Turnier can finally sleep soundly knowing their son and other family members are now back home and safe.
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“We’re very grateful to everyone who made this possible,” said Armand.
Their plane touched down before 7 p.m. Wednesday night with 12 Floridians and two visa holders who do business in the state. But getting them here was not easy.
“The very difficult part was getting around and making it to the airport to fly out,” said Armand.
“There’s a lot of challenges in Haiti right now. I would say it’s worse than a war zone,” said Florida Division of Emergency Management Executive Director Kevin Guthrie. “It was easier getting people in and out of Israel than it is in Haiti.”
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“We’re committed to rescuing Floridians from this situation,” said Governor Ron DeSantis, who spoke with reporters as soon as the flight took off from Haiti.
He said they had planned to fly Floridians home Tuesday, but ran into hurdles given the nature of the situation.
The goal is to keep working to bring people back with another four flights hopefully happening Thursday.
“We understand that there are people that are really in danger right now that are our fellow Floridians,” said DeSantis. “So I think this is the appropriate thing for us to do.
As of 6 p.m. Wednesday, officials said 554 people had contacted Florida for help getting out of Haiti. 378 are Floridians.
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