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Irma Aftermath On St Thomas

Irma Aftermath in St ThomasMany of my friends have offered to help me weather the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, so I set up this account. With no wifi, it's near impossible to connect to Facebook or the net. I have a gofundme app on my phone so maybe I can use it as a way to provide status updates. Thanks to all for your financial assistance in what is anticipated to be a long recovery. 6 days after Irma hit St. Thomas – I'm located on the East End, behind the Ritz looking out at St. John and the BVI still no power, which means no water or refrigeration, rumored estimates on restoration to the East End is a minimum 3 to 6 months. They have literally run out of power poles so rebuilding is on hold, but they are still cutting up the wires and debris.Judy (the 80-year-old grandmother with whom I'm staying) and I have a propane generator. However, we've already gone through one tank and are halfway through our second and last time. No propane is currently available on Island.No gas, although it's rumored that some stations are open but the wait is 2+ hours. Curfew is 6 PM to noon so if you need gas you have to go to the station first and wait and hope. No cell phone except in limited areas, we drove 90 minutes to get a signal by Mahogany Run two days ago and that's less than 4 miles away. Located a place closer to home yesterday, Deck Point, but the signal not strong enough for text messages. I still have not been able to contact all of my archers and their families to see how they are OK after the hurricane. No Wi-Fi. This really hits hard because my business is 100% Internet-based so I'm basically out of business with no income. Rumored estimates for restoration is 4 to 12 months. My house is structurally sound but sustained some damaged. We had flooding and the roof on the house behind us flew off and hit ours. Also they had glass panels around the their gallery which flew into and imbedded on top of our house. So far we've picked up 2 – 5 gallon buckets of broken glass.99% of trees defoliated.Home Depot, the National Guard Armory, Kean High School and the hospital to name a few all lost their roofs. At least 3 of the major grocery stores are damaged.Food and water rations are being pass out but we've not been lucky enough to get any. They run out too fast. The folks on our street pooled our refrigerator and frozen food together the first few days. But that's all run out.Tourist and medical evacuations are taking place. Today a cruize ship is coming to take as many tourists from St John and St thomas out as possible. But locals are basically stuck.100% of the roads are blocked by power lines and poles. Driving is a nightmare. But generally everyone is trying to be optimistic.Yesterday Judy and I ventured to Red Hook to try to get a paper, news and food. Duffy' Love Shack offered free hot food (fries, corn dogs, chicken nuggets) to anyone able to get there. Judy and I thought it was the best meal ever!Again, thanks to all for your help and prayers as we continue to dig out.Note: just drove 3 hours to get phone service. Praying this goes out by Mobile phone

Donations 

  • Nancy Fay
    • $250 
    • 6 yrs

Organizer

Anne Abernathy
Organizer
Anna's Retreat, United States Virgin Islands

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