Speaking to The Malta Independent, Mr Azzopardi said that the hotel management ordered people, including him, his wife and son, not to leave their hotel room until further notice. The three have been in their room for four days now and also lost last Saturday’s flights back to Malta.

Mr Azzopardi, who is staying at the Best Western Hotel, said the weather outside the hotel was terrifying. The wind is having a pretty disastrous effect here, he added.

He said he was lucky that they had arrived nearly a week before and had managed to see a number of Florida’s attractions, including the theme parks and several shopping arcades.

Mr Azzopardi said that to make matters worse, over the past few days there were times when there was no electricity because of the bad weather.

Contacted by this newspaper, Mondial Holidays managing director Martin Degiorgio explained that there are more than 300 Maltese people who are stranded in Miami and Orlando. The Maltese travellers had booked their holiday through Mondial Holidays, EC Travel, Hamilton Travel and Fantasy Tours. The number involved could be bigger as a number of Maltese people had organised their holidays independently.

He said the Maltese in Miami were ordered to leave their hotel because waves were reaching heights of three to four metres. They were transferred to inland shelters, including schools, warehouses and army bases. The first priority is safety and not comfort, he said.

After spending two days in the shelters, these people were allowed to return to their hotel in Miami. A number of these travellers had their cruise delayed for two days because the previous cruise had not been allowed to enter port because of the bad weather.

The cruise lines gave their passengers $500 credit per cabin as a refund because two days of the week-long cruise had been lost due to the weather. The passengers were also given a 50 per cent discount card to use on their next cruise, if booked by 2005.

The Maltese stranded in Orlando were ordered to remain in their hotel room until further notice. They spent three days in their hotel rooms, following what was happening on the outside through reports from television stations, which gave extensive coverage to the hurricane. In both Miami and Orlando, shops, cinemas, cafeterias, restaurants, theme parks and other tourist attractions were all closed.

Mr Degiorgio said all the Maltese travellers were safe and in good health, even though they had suffered a number of inconveniences due to the hurricane. “This is an act of God. No one is to blame. Unfortunately they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. We are in constant contact with the Maltese there and we are seeing to their every need,” Mr Degiorgio said.

He said flights have now been resumed from Miami airport, allowing hundreds of stranded passengers to leave.

BBC reports said that up to four million people were without electricity after power lines were brought down. Two people were killed after disobeying orders to flee their homes. The report said that even though damage was widespread, it does not seem to be as bad as that caused by the recent hurricane Charley, which hit Florida three weeks ago, killing 26 people.

Hurricane Frances ripped roofs off buildings and uprooted trees, and the report said that another hurricane was looming on the horizon. On Sunday night, it said, hurricane Ivan was 1,300 kilometres away from Barbados but was heading towards the Caribbean Windward Islands. This hurricane was packing winds of 205kph.

A story carried on Aberdeen News.com said a group of Maltese tourists caused some trouble at one of the shelters after they had their blankets stolen by an old woman.

The report said that “at the South Miami High shelter, the most ire came from a frustrated group of 39 tourists from Malta who were (driven) to the school from the airport after a 26-hour journey. One of the tourists, Anna Fenech, noticed the blankets that an elderly woman was using looked familiar.

“‘Hey, those are our blankets. She stole our blankets!’ she yelled to the others. Before any of the Red Cross volunteers could react, Fenech and two men were pulling the blanket from underneath the woman and calling her a thief. The woman, who spoke no English, ran outside and wept.”