Bermudians in Florida have shown true grit in the face of Hurricane Katrina ? despite witnessing shocking scenes of destruction.

Among those caught up in Katrina, which has taken the lives of four Americans, is Progressive Labour Party MP Nelson Bascome. The former Health Minister was staying in his time-share condominium in Weston, Florida when the hurricane struck.

He has seen trees felled and debris scattered ? scenes reminiscent of Hurricane Fabian in Bermuda. There have also been a lot of accidents.

The area around the condominium was still blacked out, he said, although fortunately the property had an emergency generator.

"We had to go out and buy food and also make sure we had flash lights," he told .

Mr. Bascome believed Bermuda's hurricane preparedness was more thorough than the US in terms of clearing land and outside furniture. He was in Miami getting his daughter settled into university, but the school was temporarily closed because of a power cut.

When contacted by Mr. Bascome was travelling through Orlando, Florida, where the weather was much better. Shops were open and he saw a lot of Bermudians in the area.

The Bermuda International Airport confirmed that American Airlines flight 308, due to take off on Thursday evening, and flight 1325, due to fly out yesterday morning, to Miami were cancelled. Nonetheless, Mr. Bascome's return flight scheduled for today was reportedly running normally. "Everything is confirmed," he said.

Another Bermudian witness to Katrina was Kimberly Stafford, who lives between Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

She said she had also seen a lot of trees toppled and a huge amount of debris in the roads. In addition the electricity had been down in her area. Amazingly, however, the extent of damage to her home was a broken fence. Ms Stafford said that Hurricane Katrina initially did not worry her as it was labelled a "a slow moving storm".

"To be perfectly honest I didn't really take this one seriously, we were just supposed to be expecting rain. You get so used to storms coming, but they do not come, they just miss you."

Nonetheless there were times when Ms Stafford admitted she was concerned. "When the gust really picked up it got a little scary."