Hurricane Irma Diaries

It was a fair amount of time, about three months after hurricane Irma had shown its worst moves on a display, rooting put poles, houses, building, anything to everything, nothing really was spared.

The writer descended upon the affected area by a LIAT plane at the Beef Island Airport and to her shock, she could already see the plight of the landscape which was painted in dozens of strings of wrecked boats here and there. The marine surveyor said that about 80 to 90 percent of BVI’s fleet of the charter was damaged and a major 85% of the island’s buildings and infrastructure was destroyed.

But it was a certain sigh of relief to see the green shoots which indicated the recovery being started along with cars and all sorts of vehicles moving down the streets with smashed screens and dents, repaired with duck tape and plastic. First up, their visit to the gateway supermarket, they found no shortages and everything was plentiful and then next up they possibly couldn’t forget the Pussers company store, right?

They were astonished to see the regular buzz busy BVI waters empty instead of crowded anchorages. The relief workers were living around Beach in the great harbor and were waiting for the power and resources to be repaired. Wherever the writer went, there was only an aura of the destruction that had been done and the light of how the people were trying to recover.

The other day they sailed to North coast of Tortola and the results were same as the sad sight of Marina Cay and the Last resort Island. All the way around, you couldn’t avoid looking at the hundreds of boats blown no better than dominoes simply. Next, they went up to check out the state of the north and they didn’t wake up to any different chirping but the expected hammers and hits.

The resorts were yet to be opened back to the customers as most of them were still recovering the high costs.  And finally yes, the writer in the story comes to the conclusion that yes even if the rebuilding part is taking place, BVI magic has happened and trust us, the tourist money will work for the reconstruction.