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Hurricane Matthew: In Fort Pierce, the advice is 'Pray, for one thing. Because they say this is going to be a big one'

 
Jimmie Booth, 80, takes a pair of flashlights from her granddaughter, Kia Frederick, 35, moments before leaving her family home in the Douglas Court neighborhood of Fort Pierce for higher ground on Thursday. [DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD   |   Times]
Jimmie Booth, 80, takes a pair of flashlights from her granddaughter, Kia Frederick, 35, moments before leaving her family home in the Douglas Court neighborhood of Fort Pierce for higher ground on Thursday. [DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times]
Published Oct. 6, 2016

FORT PIERCE — Josh and Kia Frederick took five of their children to pick up their Grammy from the Douglas Court neighborhood ahead of Hurricane Matthew's anticipated landfall Thursday.

The day before, Josh had let his 11-year-old son, Justin, stand by his side as he used a weed whacker to clear an escape path in the brush behind the family's home — just in case. Frederick said his house is on relatively high ground in this city on the Treasure Coast, but Matthew is expected to whip winds up to 140 mph and carry several feet of storm surge.

THE LATEST: Get updates on Hurricane Matthew in our live blog.

Along the shore, and especially in the historically black neighborhoods of Fort Pierce, like Douglas Court, hurricane preparation is a family affair.

"Being a Floridian, this is wave you've got to learn how to ride," Josh Frederick said.

The 36-year-old said he has experience with hurricanes, all the way back to Andrew in 1992. When the storm comes, he said, the best move is to put up the shutters, clean up the yard, stock the kitchen and call your loved ones to come over for a hurricane party.

"It's a time for family and friends, and it brings you together," he said. "Sometimes tragedy brings triumph."

Kia Frederick's father, 61-year-old Grady Brown, said he has a simple hurricane plan: "I just grab a bottle and chill."

When the bottle doesn't work, the people who live around Douglas Court, just off Avenue D near the waterfront in Fort Pierce, turn to their Bibles.

When Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne hit the region in 2004, Jimmie Booth, the Frederick family's 80-year-old Grammy, found widespread damage in the home she has lived in since 1969. On Thursday, she closely tracked news of Hurricane Matthew as it ravaged the Bahamas. She filled in her family on the plan as she left her home:

"Pray, for one thing. Because they say this is going to be a big one."

A couple of streets over, Clarence Ingram, 62, and a few other men boarded up the windows on the El Bethel Community Development Center. Ingram said he planned to weather the storm at his home a little farther from the city shoreline.

"Sit and pray and read my Bible," he said.

Kayla Sheppard, 21, remembers living for three weeks as a little girl with no power in Douglas Court after Frances and Jeanne hit.

"We managed. We had a grill," she recalled. "FEMA came over and they brought us MREs every other day."

Still, Sheppard said, she worried for her sisters, ages 9, 11 and 12. She doesn't want them to experience the same struggle.

The girls wrangled the family's small dog, Princess, who had just thrown up after eating a piece of bologna. Sheppard tried to wash Princess off with the garden hose, but the dog kept running away.

The little girls giggled. "She just hates the water," one said.

Contact Zachary T. Sampson at zsampson@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8804. Follow @ZackSampson.