AN Aberystwyth woman has spoken of “every mother’s worst nightmare” after her daughter was caught in the path of the most powerful hurricane to hit the United States in over a decade.

Alison Hopson described the moment when she realised that her 19-year-old daughter Leanne and her friend Georgia Gethin, also 19, were stranded in the path of Hurricane Irma – a category five hurricane which had ripped through the Caribbean on its way to Florida.

Leanne, from Llanddeiniol, and Georgia, from Penparcau, were visiting Leanne’s aunt and uncle, Lorna and Ian, in Tampa Bay, after spending the summer working in Camp America in New Jersey.

The pair arrived in Tampa Bay on 27 August, three days before Irma started to develop off the West Africa coast.

The storm caused catastrophic damage in Barbuda, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Anguilla and the Virgin Islands, and Alison became “increasingly scared” as she followed the path of the hurricane on the news.

“I followed the America news and it was very scary to think it was heading their way,” she told the Cambrian News.

Florida was put in a state of emergency on 4 September, with Tampa Bay declaring its own state of emergency two days later.

Expecting the worst, Alison said: “It is every mother’s worst nightmare. There was nothing I could do, and we couldn’t get them on a plane out of there. It was a nightmare scenario.”

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