December 31, 2017
Just over three months ago two Category 5 hurricanes, Irma and Maria, swept across the Atlantic and slammed the Caribbean and mainland USA. In the Virgin Islands, foot thick wooden utility poles snapped like toothpicks. Roofs were torn off and rain poured into homes.
Damaged Church, Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas, USVI
Thousands of people sought shelter away from their damaged homes, staying with friends or relatives in structures that had survived. Jobs were lost, electricity and connectivity were gone, roads were blocked, cars and trucks were destroyed, boats sank, food and water were scarce. The island was dotted with blue roofs, the temporary plastic tarps that marked the storms’ destructive paths like a giant’s footprints.
Blue Roofs, Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas, USVI
Surviving a storm with 185 mph winds that dumps a foot of rain in a single day is remarkable. Surviving two such storms, one right after the other, is almost unimaginable. The Gazette spoke with some survivors of “Irmaria” on St Thomas:
Sean Krigger, a government official.
“I felt no anxiety ahead of Irma because I hadn’t experienced a Category 5 hurricane before. That changed when I learned Maria was coming!”
Saida, hotel bartender.
“We put sandbags but it rained so hard the water came in through the windows and walls anyway. The kids weren’t scared, just hungry and sleepy. Our car was damaged but my husband was able to get it running. Then he found work clearing downed utility poles. I’m OK. My family’s OK. That’s the main thing.”
Dave.
“Irma and Maria? Those two women kicked our ass!”
Alisha Mellow works at a restaurant in St Thomas.
“During Irma I stayed with relatives and some work friends at another restaurant. There was a pregnant lady there that we thought would give birth that night! She had to be flown to PR after Irma passed to have her baby. And there was a dog who stayed in the corner the whole time. My brother was scared but I told him we’d be OK. One guy drank so much he passed out and slept through the hurricane. There was a big hole in the ceiling and rain poured in! We had a generator and an Xbox so we watched Game of Thrones reruns. The wind was so loud!”
Winnie, musician.
“My first hurricane was when I was 10, in Antigua. Before Irma we dug a trench for the water to go around the house. It started with a lot of rain and a steady breeze. Then the wind picked up. It was so loud! It sounded like hundreds of people talking, no, fighting, almost like spirits or the dead…and it went on for hours. Cussing! Then after, it rained for a few days and it was very foggy. I saw a house roof on top of a pole. It was bad, bad, but after, it was wonderful.”
Leveta
“Irma was a terrible storm. Long hours of howling wind. I stayed at my brother’s house but I couldn’t sleep. I worried about my house all night. And it was very badly damaged.”
Hotel that burned during Maria.
Two police officers spoke to the Gazette on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to give interviews. “It felt like the patrol car would blow over! Looking out to sea there was an actual tornado! We did a 72 hour shift, took naps in the station, it was more like a week really. A building burned all night, that hotel up there. A woman refused to come out without her dog. In the full hurricane it was burning. They finally got the dog and brought them both out. Another lady was only worried about her late mom’s jewelry box.”
Ronald.
“I didn’t think Irma would be that bad, but my wife and I went to a school they turned into a shelter anyway. There were 60, maybe 70 people there. The roof was moving! We just stayed there one night. There was less damage to our place than I expected. For Maria we stayed at home. Nobody slept and the water came in.”
Q Martin, drone photographer.
“I noticed all the animals were gone about a day before Irma hit St Thomas. I’ve been through 8 or 9 hurricanes so I wasn’t that worried. The day it landed I went to my Mom’s house around 4 in the afternoon. I was alone there. I went around and opened every other window a few inches so the pressure wouldn’t blow the roof off and it worked perfectly! But the wind blew a big tree into the back of the house and it made a lot of damage. Next day when I came out I saw a lot of trees and poles had been knocked down. I found work clearing trees and poles from roads and now I’m doing drone photography to document damage to people’s homes for their insurance. I love hurricanes because they’re a natural occurrence and people come together. I don’t get mad at them.”
Clinton, musician.
“My first hurricane was Marilyn, so this made 3 major ones for me. I got a call from the Marriott the day before, they said come on over and play music. So I went over. I took my 2 boys and it was nice. They had a buffet and we stayed there through Irma.
“When I looked outside the next day, it was all brown. All the green was gone.
“A friend of mine, a police officer, didn’t make it. The wind blew out the window and while he tried to fix it something blew in and hit him.
“Federal assistance has been…difficult.
“Life is not about things. I want to connect with people.”
Mil13nnium, l-r Tywanna Andrew, Candice Bryan, and Dia Noel performed music at a recovery concert in Charlotte Amalie.
Irma and Maria by Augustin Holder
