The Daily Telegraph

Meet the medics finishing their studies in Preston

After the hurricane, 650 medics relocated to finish their studies – in Preston. Cara Mcgoogan meets them

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At the end of summer, a week before medical students at the American University of the Caribbean (AUC) were due back at their St Maarten campus for a new term, reports suggested that a category three hurricane was on its way. A day before Irma hit, her category rocketed to five.

When she saw the severity warning change, Darlene Gumbs, 35, the only St Maarten native studying at AUC, asked her father for advice. “He said nothing, absolutely no words,” she recalls. “The next thing I knew, he was outside on the roof properly reinforcin­g things. I guess he knew what was about to happen.”

Near the airport, fellow student David Townsend, 37, searched for flights back to the US but, for his family of four, it would have cost around $10,000 (£7,500). Instead, he taped up the windows on the home he shared with his wife and two young sons, stocked the cupboards with food, and put a paddling pool in the shower to fill with water.

The university contacted the 650 or so medical students on the island, most of whom were from the US, and told them to pack four days’ worth of clothes, food and water, and shelter in one of its hurricane-proof buildings.

When Elizabeth, 26, and Benjamin Zenger, 27, arrived with their daughter Maggie, who was nearly two, people were already setting up an emergency medical centre. Tina Sharma, 23, who had caught the tail end of Hurricane Harvey at her Houston home a fortnight before, was helping to prepare it for minor casualties.

As the hurricane swept in, with winds of 185mph, windows smashed, roofs were ripped clean off and cars rolled over. Irma took 134 lives across the Caribbean, four of which were in St Maarten. The landscape and infrastruc­ture devastated, it left people without electricit­y, clean water or the internet. American military planes were sent a few days later to evacuate the students to Chicago. “It was so sad,” says Zenger. “We expected to have another year on St Maarten. It didn’t feel right to leave the way we did.”

Although the university campus weathered the storm, the collapse of

infrastruc­ture on the island meant it would have been impossible for classes to begin. But thanks to the medical department’s link with the East Lancashire NHS Trust, it was suggested that the 700 students and staff might be accommodat­ed within a temporary faculty at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN).

“The AUC was looking to keep all the students together to continue with their programme elsewhere,” says Prof Mike Thomas, vice-chancellor of UCLAN. “It was our freshers’ week, so we had welcome packs and accommodat­ion ready.”

When I meet the four AUC students in Preston, there are few signs they were violently uprooted three months earlier. In his house, Townsend lays out a spread as the children watch Beauty

and the Beast on television.

“The city of Preston has been stellar,” says Townsend. His wife Kerri adds: “It feels more like home than on a beach.”

Preston itself has experience­d a mini-economic boom following the students’ arrival, with sales of coats, gloves and stationery rocketing. A fortnight after they landed, the students had their first lecture on UCLAN’S campus, which they are using on evenings and weekends. Recently, they all passed their first module.

“They’ve been through a horrible experience and they just want to get their heads down,” says Prof Thomas. “They’re uniformly polite, pleasant, and have gone down well with the local pubs, shops and students.”

For their part, the students are happy in Preston, where some will be until January, others until the summer. “I definitely like the people,” says Gumbs. “If it wasn’t for the weather, I could stay here.” St Maarten has an annual average temperatur­e of 26C; Preston’s is 16C. Back on the island, some progress has been made. Aid from Holland and France is helping subsidise the money lost from the collapse of tourism, as well as providing much-needed supplies. “It’s definitely going to take a couple of years to rebuild,” says Gumbs. “But it’s functional right now. Businesses are open and people are doing the best they can.”

In Preston, UCLAN is hosting Christmas Day for around 1,000 people, including the St Maarten students and others who can’t go home. “It’s a chance for people to spend the day together, rather than in their student accommodat­ion, looking at the wall,” says Prof Thomas. “Don’t ask how many turkeys we’re cooking on Christmas morning. I stopped counting at 40.”

Army and local chefs, and university volunteers will help bring the day together. The students want to make the most of their time in the UK. “Festive lights on palm trees isn’t a patch on a British Christmas,” says Townsend.

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 ??  ?? British Christmas: students from St Maarten who are staying in Preston following the devastatio­n of Irma (above), including Benjamin (rear, second left), Darlene (front, left) and David (front, second left)
British Christmas: students from St Maarten who are staying in Preston following the devastatio­n of Irma (above), including Benjamin (rear, second left), Darlene (front, left) and David (front, second left)
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