Miami Herald on the CIW’s Radio Conciencia: “Many residents appreciate getting their news directly from neighbors and community members they trust; the medium is familiar to them since it is regularly used in Latin America and the Caribbean; and it’s a disaster-resilient form of communication…”
Lucas Benitez, co-founder of the CIW: “Organized communities are always more resilient than those where people are left to face these challenges on their own, and the farmworker community here in Immokalee has demonstrated its resilience time and time again in the face of disaster.”
Late in the evening of October 9th, Hurricane Milton made landfall at Siesta Key in Sarasota, Florida. It was the second major hurricane to slam into the state in just over two weeks, following Hurricane Helene on September 23rd. A behemoth storm, Milton’s sustained winds topped out a terrifying 185 mph as the Category 5 hurricane made its way across the Gulf before wind shear reduced the storm’s rating to a Category 3 just ahead of landfall. But even before reaching Florida’s shores, Milton’s force was felt in the Immokalee area — and around the entire southern half of Florida — in the form of dozens of deadly tornadoes that shocked a hurricane-weary state that thought it had seen everything, but was not expecting this new hellish look into a future of increasingly violent storms thanks to accelerating climate change.
Throughout the day of October 9, massive tornadoes touched down across the region, ripping roofs off of homes, flipping cars like small toys, and preventing people from safely evacuating or making last-minute preparations to weatherize the outside of their homes. Indeed, just as Hurricane Ian introduced Floridians to the new reality of monster storm surge sweeping homes and lives away in unprecedented floods, Hurricane Milton announced the future of fierce hurricane-spawned twisters that make hurricane force winds look mild in comparison.
As climate change takes off at a pace even greater than that predicted by the most pessimistic climate scientists, and rising seas and soaring ocean temperatures drive ever stronger storms, it becomes all the more urgent that our communities — and especially marginalized communities like that in Immokalee, who often face the harshest consequences of the evolving climate — are well-organized, informed, and protected from deadly climate extremes.
In Immokalee, thanks to the CIW, the farmworker community was well-prepared for Milton. As it has in previous storms over the last two decades, the CIW’s radio station, 107.7 Radio Conciencia, provided regular updates on the storm’s trajectory and its anticipated impact, as well as local resources for shelter, food, water, and other necessities. The same farmworker leaders who forged the groundbreaking Fair Food Program — including protections from deadly heat at work that the Washington Post called the “nation’s strongest workplace heat rules,” — were on the airwaves day and night, ensuring their local community was informed and ready for Hurricane Milton, including for the late-breaking news of tornadoes forming in communities from Fort Myers to Clewiston around the Southwest Florida region.
Casting light the crucial role the CIW plays in protecting the farmworker community in this era of accelerating climate change, the Miami Herald and the news program Democracy Now spoke with CIW farmworker leaders last week before and after the storm.
In the days leading up to the storm, the Miami Herald spoke with Lupe Gonzalo, a senior staff member of the CIW, as well as Lucas Benitez, co-founder of the CIW, on the critical role Radio Conciencia plays in Immokalee. We have included key excerpts of the article below. Click "Read More" to check out more of the article as well as the Democracy Now segment!
