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| ‘Are You FEMA?’ Reporter Returns to Islands to Find Despair | |
| (about 17 hours later) | |
| After even the most vicious of hurricanes, most Americans find there are comforts they can fall back on, however minuscule. They probably have a job to go to. Their cellphone can make calls. And even if they have no electricity, there is someplace a reasonable drive away that does — a friend’s or relative’s home, a restaurant that serves a hot meal. | After even the most vicious of hurricanes, most Americans find there are comforts they can fall back on, however minuscule. They probably have a job to go to. Their cellphone can make calls. And even if they have no electricity, there is someplace a reasonable drive away that does — a friend’s or relative’s home, a restaurant that serves a hot meal. |
| But if you are one of the residents of the American islands in the Caribbean, getting your life to resemble anything close to normal can take many months, if not longer. | But if you are one of the residents of the American islands in the Caribbean, getting your life to resemble anything close to normal can take many months, if not longer. |
| I lived on St. Thomas 15 years ago. When I was barely out of college, I accepted a job as a reporter for The Virgin Islands Daily News without even knowing where the place was on a map — the kind of rash decision that 22-year-olds are excellent at making. But my two years there were formative. And I developed an appreciation for the people and their culture, which in many ways resembled their status as a United States territory: technically American but uniquely Caribbean. | I lived on St. Thomas 15 years ago. When I was barely out of college, I accepted a job as a reporter for The Virgin Islands Daily News without even knowing where the place was on a map — the kind of rash decision that 22-year-olds are excellent at making. But my two years there were formative. And I developed an appreciation for the people and their culture, which in many ways resembled their status as a United States territory: technically American but uniquely Caribbean. |
| When I returned there last week to report on the aftermath of Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria, I was immediately reminded of their many disadvantages. | When I returned there last week to report on the aftermath of Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria, I was immediately reminded of their many disadvantages. |
| On a good day, the power often goes out. There were many evenings I would be sitting in the newsroom or watching television at my beachfront one-bedroom and everything would suddenly go dark. Like many people there, I bought a battery-powered alarm clock after waking up one morning to discover I had overslept because there had been a power failure in the middle of the night. The power grid, which like Puerto Rico’s has been neglected for decades, is especially vulnerable to storms. Now it is now mostly flattened, its wires lying across roads or tangled in trees, its poles snapped in half, its transformers sitting in puddles of stagnant floodwater. It will take months to fully restore. | On a good day, the power often goes out. There were many evenings I would be sitting in the newsroom or watching television at my beachfront one-bedroom and everything would suddenly go dark. Like many people there, I bought a battery-powered alarm clock after waking up one morning to discover I had overslept because there had been a power failure in the middle of the night. The power grid, which like Puerto Rico’s has been neglected for decades, is especially vulnerable to storms. Now it is now mostly flattened, its wires lying across roads or tangled in trees, its poles snapped in half, its transformers sitting in puddles of stagnant floodwater. It will take months to fully restore. |
| When a Gulf state suffers a power loss after a storm, line workers from other states can get in their trucks and drive in. But on an island like St. Thomas that is 1,800 miles from Miami, those workers and their trucks must be flown in or put on a barge, delaying the process for weeks. | When a Gulf state suffers a power loss after a storm, line workers from other states can get in their trucks and drive in. But on an island like St. Thomas that is 1,800 miles from Miami, those workers and their trucks must be flown in or put on a barge, delaying the process for weeks. |
| The lack of power has knocked out cell towers and internet service, creating a cascade of breakdowns that hampers the most basic daily necessities. Without a working communications system, most stores cannot accept credit cards or food stamps. If you don’t have cash to pay with, you might be out of luck. Banks have been slow to open and get their ATMs back online. Prescriptions are going unfilled because pharmacies can’t contact insurance companies for payment. | The lack of power has knocked out cell towers and internet service, creating a cascade of breakdowns that hampers the most basic daily necessities. Without a working communications system, most stores cannot accept credit cards or food stamps. If you don’t have cash to pay with, you might be out of luck. Banks have been slow to open and get their ATMs back online. Prescriptions are going unfilled because pharmacies can’t contact insurance companies for payment. |
| Even bathing is a chore. Most people get their water from cisterns that collect rainwater under their homes. But if the electricity isn’t on, the pumps that force water out don’t work. | Even bathing is a chore. Most people get their water from cisterns that collect rainwater under their homes. But if the electricity isn’t on, the pumps that force water out don’t work. |
| An old colleague told me she dips a bucket into her cistern to draw the water out and then heats it on her gas stove. Two other friends who don’t have that luxury asked me to bring them a portable, solar-powered camping shower along with as many C and D batteries as I could stuff into my carry-on. | An old colleague told me she dips a bucket into her cistern to draw the water out and then heats it on her gas stove. Two other friends who don’t have that luxury asked me to bring them a portable, solar-powered camping shower along with as many C and D batteries as I could stuff into my carry-on. |
| The feeling of normalcy that could be achieved by something routine like returning to work each day is impossible for many. The charter boats they worked on sank. The hotels they worked in are unable to open because they were too severely damaged. My friends are waiting for power to be restored to the shopping center where their restaurant is located so they can start selling food again and make a living. | The feeling of normalcy that could be achieved by something routine like returning to work each day is impossible for many. The charter boats they worked on sank. The hotels they worked in are unable to open because they were too severely damaged. My friends are waiting for power to be restored to the shopping center where their restaurant is located so they can start selling food again and make a living. |
| The Caribbean is supposed to offer isolation, but not like this. | The Caribbean is supposed to offer isolation, but not like this. |
| On three separate occasions, locals asked me plaintively, “Are you FEMA?” Seeing my notebook and pen, they assumed I was someone official in a position to expedite the relief they had been waiting for — a tarp for their sheared-off roof, a personal hygiene kit, an answer to a question like when trash pickup would resume. | On three separate occasions, locals asked me plaintively, “Are you FEMA?” Seeing my notebook and pen, they assumed I was someone official in a position to expedite the relief they had been waiting for — a tarp for their sheared-off roof, a personal hygiene kit, an answer to a question like when trash pickup would resume. |
| Jeff Miller, who lives in one of the most far-removed sections of St. John, Coral Bay, described what it’s like after dark. “There’s no sound,” he said to me. “There’s no CNN. There’s no Weather Channel. There won’t be for months. I have no idea who won the football game last night. I don’t even know if Donald Trump is still the president.” | Jeff Miller, who lives in one of the most far-removed sections of St. John, Coral Bay, described what it’s like after dark. “There’s no sound,” he said to me. “There’s no CNN. There’s no Weather Channel. There won’t be for months. I have no idea who won the football game last night. I don’t even know if Donald Trump is still the president.” |
| Then there is the sense of political powerlessness that residents feel. I always observed that Virgin Islanders resentfully saw their status as American-in-name-only. The only elected representation in Washington for these 103,000 citizens is a nonvoting delegate to Congress. They cannot vote for president. The same is true for Puerto Ricans. And as is also the case with Puerto Rico, the island is overwhelmingly nonwhite — nearly 80 percent of Virgin Islanders are black. | Then there is the sense of political powerlessness that residents feel. I always observed that Virgin Islanders resentfully saw their status as American-in-name-only. The only elected representation in Washington for these 103,000 citizens is a nonvoting delegate to Congress. They cannot vote for president. The same is true for Puerto Ricans. And as is also the case with Puerto Rico, the island is overwhelmingly nonwhite — nearly 80 percent of Virgin Islanders are black. |
| “They’re not really on the radar,” Sally Jewell, the Interior secretary under Barack Obama, told me. When she would try to get members of Congress to take notice of local issues in the Virgin Islands, she recalled, she would be met with incredulity: “They would say, ‘We’re here to focus on the United States.’ And I’d say, ‘They are the United States.’ ” | “They’re not really on the radar,” Sally Jewell, the Interior secretary under Barack Obama, told me. When she would try to get members of Congress to take notice of local issues in the Virgin Islands, she recalled, she would be met with incredulity: “They would say, ‘We’re here to focus on the United States.’ And I’d say, ‘They are the United States.’ ” |
| The Virgin Islands was relatively lucky in the sense that it suffered only a handful of deaths from the storms. But doctors I spoke with who are assisting the islands’ overburdened health care system said the aftereffects are starting to show in people who are hurting themselves while cleaning out what remains of their houses or letting wounds go untreated because they cannot get to a clinic. Their driveway might still be blocked, or their car smashed. | The Virgin Islands was relatively lucky in the sense that it suffered only a handful of deaths from the storms. But doctors I spoke with who are assisting the islands’ overburdened health care system said the aftereffects are starting to show in people who are hurting themselves while cleaning out what remains of their houses or letting wounds go untreated because they cannot get to a clinic. Their driveway might still be blocked, or their car smashed. |
| Then there are the psychological scars a storm can leave. | Then there are the psychological scars a storm can leave. |
| I met Kirk Martin of St. John one morning on the ferry that runs people back and forth to St. Thomas. He was hoping to get to a working ATM on St. Thomas to withdraw some money. He is a contractor and said that many of the homes he worked on over the years were now in ruins. He snapped a few pictures of a boat that had washed up on the beach in the Cruz Bay section of St. John. Its hull was ripped open and its mast rested on the roof of a popular beach bar. | I met Kirk Martin of St. John one morning on the ferry that runs people back and forth to St. Thomas. He was hoping to get to a working ATM on St. Thomas to withdraw some money. He is a contractor and said that many of the homes he worked on over the years were now in ruins. He snapped a few pictures of a boat that had washed up on the beach in the Cruz Bay section of St. John. Its hull was ripped open and its mast rested on the roof of a popular beach bar. |
| His eyes welled up as he told me, “Every time I go to a different part of the island I want to cry.” | His eyes welled up as he told me, “Every time I go to a different part of the island I want to cry.” |