MIAMI – South Florida Belgians were in shock Tuesday as they got the news about the terrorist attacks carried out by ISIS fighters in Brussels.
About 2,600 Belgians live in Florida, including a very tight-knit group of them in South Florida. Many are part of a club in which they keep in touch with one another.
Manuel Molina lives in Miami, where he represents Belgium as honorary consul. He was appointed to his job by the king of Belgium and the foreign minister.
"I couldn't believe it happened to my country," Molina told Local 10 News reporter Erica Rakow.
Dozens of wake-up texts and emails alerted Molina to what was happening in Belgium.
"I'm trying to reassure all the people going now to Belgium, people who were expecting people from Belgium, coming from Brussels," he said.
Molina said his own children were supposed to fly from Belgium to Miami on Wednesday.
"They're safe. (I'm) thankful for that, but their trip here is in jeopardy," he said.
Molina said he already has a visitor in Miami from Rome, who was supposed to fly back Monday with a layover in Brussels. He said his friend would have landed just at the time of the explosions Tuesday morning.
"Life is a destiny. Maybe if they did not cancel my flight, today I would be there, and so it's (an) incredible lesson," Prince Lorenzo de Medici said.
South Florida Belgians said they're happy that their loved ones are safe, but they want peace and security.
"The motto of Belgium is 'Unity makes strength,' meaning that together we are much more stronger, and I think it's now more than ever we should follow that," Molina said.
The president of the Belgian Club of Florida, Marc De Vlieger, of Coral Springs, said South Florida has about 300 families from Belgium.
He said they have all been in touch, helping one another get in touch with people in Brussels.
"I know Belgium is a very peaceful country. People really meaning the best and we accept people with open arms," De Vlieger said.
De Vlieger told Local 10 News that most of his family still lives in his hometown Brussels.
"I called my father, my brother. My oldest brother's son-in-law was on his way to the airport to catch a flight . He was 20 minutes away from the airport when it happened," De Vlieger said.
De Vlieger, who's also a former Belgian journalist, said Tuesday's terrorist attacks have shaken the small, but close-knit community of Belgian families living throughout South Florida.
"We just went through a victory capturing one of the killers from the Paris bombing and two days later, we're facing this...Coward acts," he said.
De Vlieger was in Belgium in January and said the country relies heavily on public transportation. He said airport security is not as strict as in the U.S.
"The controls are there, but not as strict as they are in Miami or New York, so it is easier to walk in and out still because they haven't faced (what we have) here on 9/11," he said.
AT&T released a statement Tuesday saying that it will be crediting its landline and wireless customers for all calls and text messages made to their loved ones in Belgium from Tuesday to next Monday.
Florida International University confirmed that two of its students who are studying abroad in Belgium are safe.
FIU spokeswoman Lilyvania Mikulski said one student was in Brussels at the time of the attack and the other was not in the city.
The Belgian Club of Florida will host a memorial for the victims of the Brussels attacks Saturday at 2 p.m. at Bayfront Park.