Angelina Evans remembers the wind.
The 11-year-old spent Hurricane Irma sheltered in her school, the Claudia Creque Educational Centre on Anegada.
She wasn’t alone.
More than 50 people stayed in Anegada’s lone public school during the storm, nearly a third of the total number who chose to remain on the sister island after government encouraged evacuations.
“From the time the winds died down, everyone was working together,” said Shirley Vanterpool, Angelina’s mother and Anegada’s district officer. “We had guys out on the street with the trucks: They were picking up the galvanised.”
And at the school, neither the central atrium nor the classrooms suggested a population struggling with catastrophe. Rather, it looked like business as usual.
A handful of seventh graders — including Angelina — shuffled towards a math quiz. The principal, Tanya Bertie-Phillip, sat at an outdoor table with an open laptop. She didn’t have access to her office, though that wasn’t because of storm damage. It was being painted.
“The kids’ spirits have been good,” Ms. Bertie-Phillip said. “They were happy to be back.”
Like anywhere in the territory, the hurricane damage on the sister island is significant, and some community members are struggling. But overall, Anegada seems to have been spared the worst of the storm, and residents are committed to building back their homes, businesses and island.
Before and after
About 120 residents heeded government’s warning and ferried over to Tortola on Sept. 5. However, the hurricane subsequently changed course: Its centre angled towards Road Town, and most of Tortola was devastated.
For the nearly 180 people who remained on Anegada, Irma’s shift was a blessing. The sister island’s highest point of elevation is about 28 feet, a frightening prospect when facing up against a hurricane predicted to bring a storm surge as high as 20 feet.
In the immediate aftermath, aid came in droves via airplane and helicopter from Puerto Rico, according to Ms. Vanterpool. Puerto Ricans — who Anegadeans across the island thanked profusely — delivered water, food and tarpaulins, as well as residents desperately trying to get back home from vacations.
Vincent Wheatley, the sister islands events coordinator who helped set up a de facto government on Virgin Gorda during the communication blackout after Irma, also managed to deliver some aid to Anegada.
On island, community members immediately got to work, Ms. Vanterpool explained.
“People cleaned up and they started putting things back together very, very quickly,” she said. “So by the time most of the officials or even visitors came to the island, they were like, ‘It looks good.’”
Premier Dr. Orlando Smith and Communications and Works Minister Mark Vanterpool visited Anegada two days after the storm and delivered a satellite phone so the island could communicate with the outside world, according to Ms. Vanterpool.
Most evacuees, she added, have returned.
Electricity
On Sept. 8, the same day as the premier’s visit, power was restored to parts of The Settlement, according to Courtney Tomlinson, a BVI Electricity Corporation distribution department employee stationed on Anegada.
In large part because the island is on its own electric grid, the BVIEC has since restored about 80 percent of its power, covering all areas except for the stretch from the airport to Big Bamboo restaurant, Mr. Tomlinson explained.
The BVIEC team on the sister island has been aided in recent weeks by four linesmen from Grenada, another group widely praised by residents.
For about a month preceding their arrival, however, eight to ten community members stepped up and helped the BVIEC, according to Mr. Tomlinson.
“That’s the best thing about Anegadeans,” he said. “We do everything — almost — by ourselves.”
Struggle
The outlook on Anegada isn’t completely rosy, however. Many people suffered serious damage to their homes and have been forced to move in with family and friends. Some are living in difficult conditions.
Because his own home was wooden, Spouge van Goff decided to ride out Irma with his dog in the concrete house of a friend who was off island during Irma.
“The night of the hurricane I’m sitting there, [my dog’s] under the bed, and I watched the roof peel off,” Mr. van Goff said. “And all the timbers fell down.”
After spending the night suffering through torrential rain, he realised he couldn’t escape his friend’s home the next morning.
“Some of the timber had fallen against the front door so I couldn’t open the front door,” the retired Anegada BVIEC employee said. “I was waving out of this small bathroom window to people going past with a white towel — ‘Let me out! Let me out!’”
Someone eventually did help him escape, but his day didn’t get better from there: His own wooden house was demolished.
Now, Mr. van Goff continues to take shelter in his friend’s home, which remains a rough environment. Water leaks under gaps in his tarpaulin every time it rains, which he tries to direct to his sink by running a gutter through the middle of his friend’s kitchen.
Though he has cistern water and he picks up a bucket of Red Cross food from the fire station each week, he’s sleeping on a folding cot from the hurricane shelter.
“I’m camping,” Mr. van Goff said. “It’s as if I’m in the Boy Scouts again.”
One of the preschool teachers at the Claudia Creque Educational Centre was also dealing with a severely damaged home.
Melanie Faulkner-Smith stayed on Tortola during the storm, but came back to find a large percentage of her house destroyed.
Now Ms. Faulkner-Smith is staying with her three children in a small section of the home they’ve managed to fix up and cover with a tarpaulin.
It’s been good for the family to have school back up and running, she said.
“You learn a lot after [the storm],” Ms. Faulkner-Smith explained. “And you hopefully make wiser decisions in terms of building and securing things.”
Lobster Festival
Across the island, people in the hospitality industry are working to rebuild Anegada’s staple tourism attractions. Many were excited about the prospect of being at least partially open for the island’s annual Lobster Festival on Nov. 25 and 26.
“Even if it’s not the same, if we can see some improvements we’ve made, some things are being repaired,” Ms. Vanterpool said. “You’re giving motivation to those business owners to look forward to something.”
Bellanseta Creque, who co-owns Cow Wreck Beach Bar with her husband Wendell, lost the roofs on her home and business. Still, she said her establishment would be ready by festival time, and by Friday construction workers had made significant progress towards constructing a new roof over the beach bar.
“That’s my only income,” Ms. Creque said. “I will persevere and get it open.”
Despite her losses, she still felt Anegada was blessed.
“We came out like a rose,” Ms. Creque said, adding, “After I saw Tortola, what happened to me was nothing.”
On Friday, several workers were also repairing the Anegada Reef Hotel, which suffered water and wind damage, according to Lawrence Wheatley, the hotel’s owner and manager.
“We’ve done a lot,” Mr. Wheatley said. “Cleaned up the place as best we can.”
Building materials
Mr. Wheatley, like many business proprietors and homeowners on Anegada, was frustrated that government had not yet managed to ship any building materials to the sister island. He was also struggling with a shortage of skilled labour.
“Anegada was always limited with skilled labour to begin with,” he said. “Now with all the work that’s gonna be going on — this guy that I got here helping me, he can only give me two days and then he has to go to somebody else.”
Nevertheless, Mr. Wheatley said his business would be open “in some form” by the Lobster Festival, which he said likely will mean serving food and drinks and opening about 25 percent of the hotel.
Next door at Potter’s by the Sea, Liston Potter was also waiting for building supplies to help rebuild his restaurant, as well as his home.
“We don’t have no materials on island right now, and that’s one of our biggest problems — getting a batch to come over,” Mr. Potter said, adding, “We just waiting. Just hoping and just waiting.”
He did praise the Anegadean community, however.
“I had quite a few guys come by and give me hand cleaning up,” he said.
The restaurateur also hopes to be cleaned up and serving food and drinks by the Lobster Festival weekend.
However, not all tourist attractions will be open for the event.
The Anegada Beach Club won’t open until Feb. 1, according to Jamie Johnson, the hotel’s operations manager.
Still, the ABC has been playing its part in the immediate rebuild, in part by housing the linesmen from Grenada, Ms. Johnson explained.
A boat arrives
On Friday, a sailboat made its way to the isolated sister island. A small group of charter yacht sailors and Tortola residents arrived to scout out the place for future charter guests and deliver some supplies like dog food.
“There’s crewed charter yachts that already have bookings in the next 10 days,” said Amy Edmonds, a Tortola resident who was among the group. “And they want to know where to go, where their guests are gonna be able to spend some money, where their guests aren’t gonna be too frightened by what’s happened, but also see some positive vibes. … Anegada is definitely gonna be on the routes.”
A VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN THE NOV. 2, 2017 PRINT EDITION.
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