TAMPA (970 WFLA) -- Floridians with family and friends in Puerto Rico are watching the news anxiously and waiting for word from loved ones, after Hurricane Maria took a devastating course across the island.
Carmen Torres, owner of "El Sabor Boricua" Restaurant in north Tampa, says the community is coming together, praying and hoping for the best. She says local Latinos of various backgrounds are stressed after Maria, Irma and the earthquake in Mexico City.
Tatiana Cox-Lopez of Oldsmar says she and her husband have family on the island. Her aunt in Caguas (KAH-gwahss) told her Maria's force pushed a central air conditioning unit through a concrete wall and flooded the aunt's house. One of her husband's relatives lost a roof in Bayamon (buy-uh-MOAN).
Cox-Lopez says they're hoping that they're physically OK despite the lack of communication. "Anything material, we'll figure it out, we'll fix it," Cox-Lopez says. Cox-Lopez says her grandparents are in their 80s and can't remember a storm as bad as Maria.