Rioting and mass chaos

This bulletin confirms Michelle's report of mass chaos:
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URGENT … URGENT … URGENT … URGENT … URGENT - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - SECURITY CHALLENGES IN GRENADA

Non-essential personnel should re-consider travel at this time.

Barbados, Sep 08, 2004: 6:30 pm (CDERA) – The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) has received reports of a serious security situation in Grenada. In response, members of the Regional Security System were deployed and are now on the ground to assist the authorities in maintaining law and order. A second contingent is on its way.

CDERA has also been receiving numerous requests as well as information that many institutions and agencies including commercial interests and media are planning flights into Grenada.

CDERA wishes to advise that only essential personnel can be guaranteed safety of passage at this time and strongly urge other non-essential parties to reconsider travel arrangements to the country until it can be verified that the security situation has been stabilised.
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From CNN:
The most powerful hurricane to hit Grenada in a decade killed at least 12 people, damaged 90 percent its homes and destroyed a prison, leaving criminals on the loose, officials said Wednesday. American medical students were taking precautions against looters....

She said students there, mostly Americans, were arming themselves with knives, sticks and pepper spray for fear that looters in the city would come up the hill. "We don't feel safe," she said by telephone service that was sporadic...

When she wandered downtown after the hurricane passed, Lazarevic said she saw bands of men carrying machetes looting a hardware store. She said she saw a bank with glass facade intact during one pass that was totally smashed when she returned...

While the storm passed, students hid under mattresses or in bathrooms. "The pipes were whistling, the doors were vibrating, gusts were coming underneath the window," Lazarevic said. "It was absolutely terrifying."

Mitchell confirmed that an unknown number of criminals were on the loose after the country's crumbling and overcrowded 17th century prison, a hilltop fortress in colonial days, was "completely devastated."

Eight inmates went to a public shelter in Grand Anse, just south of the capital, relating they escaped when winds ripped off the roof and caved in stone walls at Richmond Hill Prison. Others at the shelter said the prisoners stayed about two hours and then left. It was unclear if escapees included former Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard and 16 others jailed for life since their convictions for killings during a Marxist palace coup in 1983.
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Please pray that Michelle and her fellow students are safe.