Irma's Impact: The BVI spirit is strong, and there is calm, quiet determination; even music
ROADTOWN, TORTOLA, BVI – Today brings the beautiful Caribbean spirit, even while waiting hours to get supplies in the hot sun! Many of us arrived early to Rite Way to beat the heat and the crowds and to pick up supplies. Much to our surprise, Rite Way is not opening until noon today. There's a sign telling us that we only have access from noon to 4p. The curfew continues - we have to be off the streets by 6p.
It's back to cash only because the terminal is down. It underscores how easily we can get misinformation in a situation like this where communication is inconsistent and unreliable. Yesterday our community board told us we could use our cards.
A ferry this morning was arranged to take evacuees to St Thomas. One-way only.
I've talked to people who are choosing not to leave because they don't know how/when they would be able to come back in. Still there was a crowd lined up at the dock an hour before departure. I can appreciate the need and desire to flee, especially of those who don't have shelter and have lost everything. I pray for their arrival to safe and distant shores.
There's a visible military presence today in town, and planes flying overhead, bringing cleanup teams and more soldiers, I'm told.
As we move through our shock and grief, I hear some anger rising up as people express themselves against the onslaught of our plight. Where to even begin?
But the spirit is strong and there is calm, quiet determination; even music!
[Christine Perakis is our Facebook friend and newest contributor to Sailing Illustrated. Her two Irma-related, first-hand reports were Thursday and Saturday and widely viewed and shared on social media. Since her first story appeared here Christine has been interviewed by the UK's ITV, as well as the New York Times, ABC News radio and the Washington Post. –TFE]
"Taking a moment of respite from the massive task at hand to remember why we love this place. This is Sir Francis Drake Passage – imagine what the early explorers "discovered" when they first saw this part of the world!" Photo: Christine Perakis.