Roofs are torn off and trees are uprooted Heidi Herzog Gonzales, her husband, 12-year-old daughter and 7-year-old twin boys survived Category Five hurricanes but the Virgin Islands are devastated. Boats, homes, infrastructure, even forests have been turned to rubble in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the residents are U.S. citizens. Boats were smashed and docks are ruined.
By Girard and Verena Mollayan,
Pine Mountain community
Our daughter, our three grandkids and a cute little spit of a dog had to leave their home in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. They are staying with us here in the mountains.
[see the full story and photos in the print issue of The Mountain Enterprise newspaper]The islands were devastated by two Category Five hurricanes (Irma and Maria) last month. The family has had a sports fishing service there for 10 years. Their home and boat somehow miraculously survived, but most of the island did not.
Infrastructure is destroyed, including the water systems. It will be five months before power is restored and 80% of the homes have lost their roofs and are flooding again. Even the forests and farms have been destroyed. Rodents and disease are starting to spread.
Island hospitals will take a year and a half to repair. FEMA is trying hard but the damage is vast.
Heidi’s husband stayed behind to help rebuild the island. But the people need help.
Heidi graduated from Frazier Mountain High School in the Class of 1998—the second class to graduate from the new school. She wants to ask the people of the Mountain Communities to help her collect relief and donations. She hopes to send aid to assist those in dire need of basic supplies, such as soap, toothbrushes and batteries. [See note on page 4] Her family has one of the few working U.S. Postal Service boxes. Mail takes about two weeks to arrive.
Heidi’s FMHS friends who own In the Wings Studio of Dance are hosting a drop-off box in Frazier Park to help gather donations to aid Heidi’s neighbors, who are farmers, to help them survive and to rebuild.
Photo captions:
Roofs are torn off and trees are uprooted
Heidi Herzog Gonzales, her husband, 12-year-old daughter and 7-year-old twin boys survived Category Five hurricanes but the Virgin Islands are devastated.
Boats, homes, infrastructure, even forests have been turned to rubble in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The people of the U.S. Virgin Islands are U.S. citizens.
Boats were smashed and docks are ruined.
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This is part of the October 13, 2017 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.
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