Concerned for loved ones in path of storm
One mother hasn’t been able to speak with son, who lives in St. Martin, since Monday
Mabel Hunsberger was on the phone with her son when Hurricane Irma began to pummel the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“He was in the bathroom and we were communicating minute by minute,” said the Waterloo resident, recalling the sound of shutters banging and his concerned voice at the other end. “Then we lost contact.”
Four hours later, Jason Hunsberger, a 39-year-old surf shop and charter service owner who has lived in St. Thomas for three years, texted via WhatsApp, “I’m alive . . . I am not injured. Love you both.”
In the time that passed between their messages Wednesday, she said, her son witnessed the roof of his three-storey condo building get sheered off by powerful winds.
The Star made contact with Hunsberger mid-afternoon Saturday, after he called into the newsroom from a number that wasn’t his own, but the service was so spotty it cut out five times.
“Car windows are blown out, hydro lines are all over the place,” he told the Star. “There’s been massive infrastructure damage. There are four dead dolphins on the beach.”
Hunsberger braved the storm in his condo, drilling holes in the floor to let the floodwater drain, he said.
“It wasn’t a thought process, it was survival. I’m not doing well. Our generators keep failing. We’re trying to transport water to our cisterns,” he said.
Hunsberger’s mother, Mabel, said her son was determined to stay in St. Thomas to preserve his businesses, assured that his condo would be a bastion.
“I did ask him to leave and offered to pay for his flight,” she said. “He truly felt he could stay safe. He’s very resourceful.”
Global Affairs Canada said it is closely monitoring the progress of Irma, as well as hurricane Jose, which is currently gearing up to hit the same region in the coming days.
Officials said they had received calls from about 222 Canadians across numerous Caribbean islands re- questing consular help.
“There are many Canadians in hurricane Irma’s path, and our teams are doing their best to ensure that we get in contact and help everyone as necessary,” Global Affairs Parliamentary Secretary Omar Alghabra said.
Since Monday, there has been complete radio silence from Nina Deshane’s son, Kieron Gill. The Torontoborn man recently moved to the French-Dutch island of St. Martin/ St. Maarten, joining his wife and two children — he hadn’t been there long enough to set up a bank account, Deshane said.
“I haven’t heard anything. I’m just worried that they’re injured, no food, no water,” she said.
Gill moved from Trinidad on Aug. 28, selling the family home there and investing the proceeds into a business venture on St. Martin. “They have no money and just started a business, which I think is probably gone by now,” Deshane said. “They were so happy because it was just beginning to do really well.
“Unfortunately, now I can’t help. My son is very good in emergencies. Now, I’m just hoping he is able to look after his little family. My concern is the young children.”
Gill’s children are 5 and 2. In the gated Tampa community where Toronto expatriates Andy and Kay Walker live, neighbours left en masse Saturday morning when weather reports showed the hurricane was headed in their direction.
“We were going to stay,” Andy said, “but we said, ‘Wait a minute, this eye is going to come cruising through pretty much our part of town.’ So the choice was, no electricity, no water — we decided to head out and not know where we’re going to go.”
With their son, Carter, 3, two dogs, Gracie and Battles, along with water, apples and freshly cooked rice with curry sauce, they drove north on the I-75. Traffic was slow, probably too slow to get a motel or Airbnb in Nashville, Tenn., as they had hoped.
“Better to head out and not know where we’re going than to sit it out,” Andy said.
The couple knew hurricanes were a possibility when they opted out of Toronto’s soaring real estate market in 2014 and bought a four-bedroom house in Tampa for $300,000. It backed onto a pond, with alligators who have never posed a danger, he said. “The alligators are not the problem — the hurricanes are.”