Category 5 Hurricane Irma barreled through the Caribbean a little more than one year ago, wiping out everything in its path.
Many of us with Caribbean interests and ties depended upon coverage from the BBC, since most of the U.S. news broadcasts were focusing on “landfall in the U.S.,” i.e. Florida. They ignored that Irma would affect parts of the U.S. in the Caribbean, like St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John (the U.S. Virgin Islands) as well as Puerto Rico before eventually making landfall on the mainland and doing extensive damage to many Gulf Coast states.
My husband and I sat switching channels, frantically trying to get news about many of the islands we love and their people.
Frustrated by some of the cluelessness and misinformation I saw on Twitter, I remember tweeting “Barbuda is not Barbados.”
The BBC’s Laura Bicker was on the scene in Barbuda, and also covered Tortola with fellow journalist Paul Blake:
We met one survivor who was still trying to comprehend what had happened to his home. Arron Glasgow says he and his brother were fighting to keep the wind out when the roof suddenly blew off.
Standing in what used to be the family's living room, he says "I've lost everything. What you see me have on - perhaps one other shirt - is what I have."
Flipped cars and boats in the street meant driving was slow and treacherous.
Downed trees and power poles were buttressed by flimsy boards so that cars passed underneath.
With stagnant water pooling in the streets and a decimated utility system, there is now a concern that disease and other public health threats could emerge.
Residents of the Caribbean island of Barbuda have left after most buildings were destroyed by Hurricane Irma, and as a second storm, Hurricane Jose, threatens.
The BBC's Laura Bicker was the first foreign journalist to reach the island since Irma hit.
Apocalypse was an apt descriptor for what was unfolding in Barbuda.
I then began to worry about St. Thomas and the other islands of the USVI and BVI, where I spent many wonderful weeks during youthful summers while staying with my cousin.
Hurricane Irma made landfall in the U.S. Virgin Islands as a Category 5 storm just over one week ago, knocking out electricity and running water, and cutting off communications with the outside world. Now, Governor Kenneth Mapp says the islands of Saint John and Saint Thomas are still nearly entirely without power. The hurricane also destroyed schools and the main hospital on Saint Thomas. The devastation was so extensive, it can be seen from space. Earlier this week, a U.S. military amphibious ship arrived on Saint Thomas ladened with equipment and supplies. The islands have also received emergency aid from residents of the nearby island of Puerto Rico, where volunteers banded together to collect supplies and transport them on dozens of ships. But while Hurricane Irma hit the U.S. Virgin Islands days before it made landfall on the Florida Keys, the Virgin Islands have been largely forgotten in the wall-to-wall U.S. media coverage of the storm. And that omission is even more striking given that the U.S. Virgin Islands are in the midst of celebrating their centennial as U.S. territory. We speak with Saint Thomas native Tiphanie Yanique, award-winning poet and novelist. She’s an associate professor in the English Department at Wesleyan University and the author of the poetry collection "Wife" and the novel "Land of Love and Drowning."
Tiphanie Yanique wrote this powerful op-ed for the New York Times a few days after Irma hit, titled “Americans in a Battered Paradise.”
Today Virgin Islanders are led by a president who makes clear delineations between “real” Americans and all the rest. True, the people of the Virgin Islands didn’t vote for this current president. The people of the Virgin Islands didn’t vote for any president of our United States of America, because voting in the general election is not a privilege of citizenship that the federal government extends to us. Like the citizens of Puerto Rico, Guam and the other United States territories, we are not yet real Americans. No wonder TV networks and even the president’s homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert, can’t seem to get it right.
In a press briefing last Friday, Mr. Bossert appeared to chastise the news media for not covering the government response to Hurricane Irma’s assault on the Virgin Islands. Watching him, I held my breath, wondering if now someone would claim us. But he mentioned the evacuation of American citizens from the Virgin Islands in the same way he talked about the evacuation of American citizens from St. Maarten and St. Martin. I took him to mean: We are evacuating the real Americans from these foreign Caribbean islands.
Nowhere did he note that we should be concerned about this American land, because it is American land. Has been for 100 years.
In the continental United States there has been little coverage of this centennial of Virgin Islands Americanness. In Transfer Day ceremonies in March, the Danish flag again went slowly down in the Virgin Islands and the American flag went soaring up. All this year Virgin Islanders have been marking our Americanness with such exercises of memory, but it is a bitter celebration. When we Virgin Islanders leave the Virgin Islands for the mainland, we find that we are immigrants in our own country.
Just want to repeat here:
The islands have also received emergency aid from residents of the nearby island of Puerto Rico, where volunteers banded together to collect supplies and transport them on dozens of ships.
You know, those (according to Trump) lazy Puerto Ricans who invented their power outage resulting from Hurricane Maria and are lying about the cause of the death toll—yes, those same Puerto Ricans who were also hit by Irma.
Hurricane Irma carved a merciless path of destruction through the Caribbean, killing at least 12 people, leaving thousands of others homeless and plunging more than 1 million residents of Puerto Rico into darkness.
Some of those people hit by Irma are still without power—or roofs.
Donald Trump paid a visit to the Virgin Islands. Well, not actually to the islands. He instead landed on a ship to talk to Gov. Kenneth Mapp, who he referred to as “the president of the Virgin Islands,” not knowing that he is their friggin’ President.
Trump’s non-visit was also mentioned in this New York Times op-ed from Peter Bailey.
Has America Forgotten the Virgin Islands?
...many here in what’s billed as “America’s Paradise” are disappointed that our struggles have been overshadowed by the devastation in Puerto Rico, a short distance away.
As for President Trump’s visit, one that was anticipated here for weeks, the commander in chief instead opted to have Governor Mapp meet him aboard the assault ship Kearsarge off Puerto Rico. (Trump’s apparent snub was probably for the best, sparing us the embarrassment of being tossed paper towels.)
While the U.S. mainstream media has for the most part ignored Irma’s Caribbean impact, I am proud that Daily Kos writers covered Irma’s development from the beginning. Bloggers from Hurricane Kos along with other writers contributed pieces listed under #HurricaneIrma.
I’m remembering when I updated a diary with this:
Tuesday, Sep 5, 2017 · 12:00:19 PM EDT · Denise Oliver Velez
Update #3
A Category 5 storm, which starts at 157 mph winds, is the strongest classification on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. "Catastrophic damage will occur" with Category 5 storms, the National Hurricane Center said.
"A high percentage of framed homes will be destroyed, with total roof failure and wall collapse," according to the National Hurricane Center. "Fallen trees and power poles will isolate residential areas. Power outages will last for weeks to possibly months. Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks or months."
The predictions were correct. The damage was beyond devastating.
A year later, few people are talking about this anniversary.
But there are some who remember.
Next Sunday I am going to talk about the recovery process across the Caribbean during the past year, what still needs to be done, and how you can help.
I hope you’ll join me.