By Lornet Turnbull
Special To The Medium
More than two weeks after the second of two powerful hurricanes churned through the Caribbean, Pauline Elwin-Smith still longs to hear the voices of her brothers on the island of Dominica where they grew up.
She doesn’t know where or how they are living. With lines of communication down across most of the islands, and no power, it has been difficult to reach some of her family members by phone.
“The day after (Hurricane Maria) I got this knot in the pit of my stomach that wouldn’t go away,” said Elwin-Smith, who works as a grants and contract specialist with the city of Seattle.
“The eye of the storm passed over the entire island and 90 percent of the homes were damaged,” she said. “I worry about the people; I worry about their well-being, about how they’ll earn money to make a living.”
Elwin-Smith shares the concerns of many Puget Sound area residents with roots in these islands scattered across the Eastern Caribbean, and who in recent weeks have been rocked by news of the devastating impact on their home countries of two of the most powerful storms on record.
Irma and Maria, coming two weeks apart in September, wreaked havoc from Barbuda to St. Martin/St. Maarten to Puerto Rico. Together they killed more than 60 people, damaged and destroyed homes and businesses and upended lives. It will be some time before power is fully restored to the islands.
The hurricanes are having an impact not just on the physical infrastructure of the islands, but economically, as well. Those like Anguilla, St. Martin and the Virgin Islands depend heavily on tourism; Dominica on agriculture, which Maria essentially wiped out. Cruise ships that usually disperse tourists across the islands have been evacuating stranded visitors and ill residents instead.
“I feel it set the Caribbean back 20 years,” Elwin-Smith said. “A lot of the infrastructure is damaged. Entire industries have been devastated. You can’t tell me global warming isn’t real.”
The latest images emerging from the storm’s latest victims, Dominica and Puerto Rico, have only heightened the anxiety for family members. And President Trump’s attack on Puerto Rico’s efforts — even his bizarre comments during his visit there this week – does nothing to ease their concerns.
Across the country and here in the Puget Sound, food drives, fundraisers and crowd-source funding campaigns have been launched by Caribbean communities and individuals trying to help people back in their home countries.
One event scheduled for Friday evening at Taste of the Caribbean on Capitol Hill will benefit several of the islands affected by the hurricane.
Sharon Cronin, an organizer who has extended family on Puerto Rico, said the funds raised will be distributed equally to the islands hardest it.
Several upcoming local events are focused on Puerto Rico, which has a significant population here in the Puget Sound region, most of it in Tacoma. One fundraiser is set for La Isla in Ballard on Oct. 8 and an all-day cultural fundraising event by the Puerto Rican Association of Washington State is scheduled for Oct. 14 at the Cultural Event Center in Tacoma.
Guillermo Padilla, president of the association said in the face of such loss raising funds and sending what they can is one way to help comrades so far away.
As of last week, most of his organization’s 1,000-plus members had been able to reach relatives on the island. Puerto Ricans are encouraged that previously stalled effort to get critical supplies to people who need it, particularly those in areas cut off by damaged bridges and overflowing rivers, are finally becoming dislodged.
For the nearly two weeks until he was able to reach is sister’s family in the northeast town of Loiza, Otoqui Reyes avoided news reports because they only made him more anxious.
“It’s damaged, yes, but they are still standing,” he said of his home country. “They are getting better.”
Reyes said his family told him, “We are OK. We have our lives. We have food. But I do know they will need help.”
He’s doing what he can. At the bilingual school in the Rainier Valley where he is a teacher, they’ve launched a food drive. And Reyes, who is a musician of the local Afro-Puerto Rican music, Bomba, will be among several performers at upcoming fundraising events.
Many of the island affected by Irma are struggling to recover. For most, it will be a long way back.
On the island of Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands, for example, crews of volunteers are helping with vital cleanup and roads are being cleared. Power has been restored to the most populated areas and supermarkets, banks and other services are opening up.
Next door in St. Thomas, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, U.S.-headquartered big-box stores such as Home Depot and K-Mart hadn’t fully opened. People are waiting in long lines for everything – from medicine to gasoline to ATM machines. Phone service is still largely out, though hot spots are being set up across the island to allow residents to connect with family members. Regular commercial flights have resumed.
Elwin-smith worries about the future of the entire region and of her beloved island of Dominica. Known as Nature Island of the Caribbean because of its lush green foliage, it has been stripped bare by Maria’s unforgiving winds.
“All the trees are down,” she said. “The island has gone from green to brown. I was telling a friend that my island used to be Paradise. Now it looks like it’s been struck by a nuclear bomb.”
