BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS START TO DEAL WITH AFTERMATH
Canadian residents are helping clear away debris from two devastating Category 5 hurricanes
Heartbroken residents are clearing away scattered pieces of buildings and trees on the British Virgin Islands, which braved two major hurricanes within two weeks, wiping out most homes.
Hurricane Maria struck the island Tuesday night, destroying most of what was left after the first storm. It dragged the debris left behind by hurricane Irma across the island, causing further road blocks and thrashing homes.
“It’s like a nuclear bomb had gone off or a forest fire raged because there is nothing left in terms of wildlife and plants,” said Katelyn Woodman, a former Ajax resident now teaching math on the islands.
“Cars are in the water and boats are on the land, trees have been pulled from their roots and flown into buildings, there are no roofs on probably 85 per cent of the houses.”
International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said 6,000 Canadians who were in the path of hurricane Maria were evacu- ated before the storm hit. She added that 168 Canadians who chose not to leave have requested federal assistance.
Woodman was one of the Canadians who chose not to leave her island, where she has lived for three years. She wanted to help her students and the other residents with the cleanup.
She hid inside her concrete-walled home during both Category 5 hurricanes. By some miracle, she said Thursday, her home is still intact, even though many others in the area had been severely damaged.
“The entire time we could hear the debris being lifted off the land and we could hear all of the palm trees, shrapnel and rubble hitting our block,” she said. “It felt like you were in a box and someone was shaking it around like toy.”
With winds of 255 km/h, the most recent storm left many without a home. Several of Woodman’s students are living in the school, which is now a makeshift shelter.
Woodman said the second hurricane that hit the British Virgin Islands further shook up the islands — leaving the place unrecognizable. The night, now, she said, is eerily silent because the frogs and crickets are no longer there.
“It just looks like a landfill, as if someone has just taken their hand and wiped it completely across the island, it’s brown and bare, it just looks dead,” she said. “It’s sad and heartbreaking.”
Before the second storm struck, she said she could sense the fear people were feeling.
“You could feel it in the grocery store, in the lines and walking through town, people were nervous about this one as well,” she said. “A lot of people were more nervous about Maria, because they realized what a Category 5 could do.”
Former Quebec resident Guy-Paul Dubois was forced to flee his home on the British Virgin Islands after Irma struck. He experienced hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, where he was sent after being evacuated from his home of 15 years.
“I had no roof, no more home, we were sleeping where it was wet everywhere in Tortola, I had to leave everything but a bag and my two dogs behind,” he said. “I don’t want to think about it anymore.”
Dubois said he thought Puerto Rico was in better shape, despite reports that Maria knocked out electricity to the entire island and triggered landslides and floods.
“You can still see some green and trees here,” he said. “There are still some leaves on the trees, but Tortola was brown like a bomb had exploded.”