Hurricanes hit home

Post-hurricane damage in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Photo taken Oct. 2017 by Emma Graham-Winkles.

Former CCSF student shares devastation and frustration in the USVI   

By Emma Graham- Winkles

Someone needs to take away Trump’s electricity, water source, phone service, food supply, shower and clean clothes. Drop a tree on his car, have him flush his toilet with buckets of water every day, have him stand in line for hours to pick up one case of water and bring it home to his family, knowing it will only last a few days.

Have him wash all of his clothes by hand and watch rain pour into his home because there’s no roof. Have him wear the same pair of pants for weeks because his clothes blew away in a hurricane.

Make him stand at an ATM for hours because residents can only use cash everywhere. Have him pop tires on fallen telephone wires, have looters raid his home and let his family receive no medical aid.

Have him stand in line just to get into the grocery store while the military patrols the isles and regulates the amount of people going in and out. Let him sift through produce that’s moldy and black and still being sold for the original retail price. Have his home wash away and let him watch as maggots form in the rancid food in his fridge.

Let him walk where his house once was, picking up family photos scattered through the brush and then…

After all this, give him some fucking paper towels and tell him to clean it up.

Trump gave Puerto Rico paper towels and told them to be proud that only 16 people had died in the storm (which is inaccurate) when Hurricane Katrina killed thousands.

This isn’t a competition Trump- this isn’t something for people to be proud of. This was your moment to show compassion if nothing else and you ceased to provide aid to Americans in distress. This was your time to think before you spoke and say that what you saw here was awful and that you will help us- and it’s not just Puerto Rico, what about the USVI?

You made no comment there. Thanks. If 16 people that you know die, I hope you’re proud that it’s not more and you hold your head up smiling at the funeral you twisted pompous prick.

Thank you to Mike Bloomberg, New York businessman and one of the world’s’ richest men, and country singer, Kenny Chesney, who came to St. John with aid, food and water. They helped the USVI community regain strength and hope. They showed a soft spot for our little island and provided their own funds to help the people of the USVI.

Being present, offering help and kind words is the kind of leadership that the people of the Caribbean need right now. This devastation will not keep us down, Trump will not keep us down. 

I left the islands yesterday with tears in my eyes. I’ve never cried as much as I have in the last 30 days. It’s really hard to just be okay right now. 

Wreckage of dock with the ship “The Vagrant” run aground. Photo taken by Emma Graham-Winkles in the United States Virgin Islands Oct. 2017.
Wreckage of dock with the ship “The Vagrant” run aground. Photo taken by Emma Graham-Winkles in the United States Virgin Islands Oct. 2017.
Post-hurricane damage in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Photo taken Oct. 2017 by Emma Graham-Winkles.
Post-hurricane damage in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Photo taken Oct. 2017 by Emma Graham-Winkles.
Destroyed facade of church after hurricane in Virgin Islands. Photo taken by Emma Graham-Winkles Oct. 2017.
Destroyed facade of church after hurricane in Virgin Islands. Photo taken by Emma Graham-Winkles Oct. 2017.
Small sailboat run ashore after hurricane in Virgin Islands. Phto taken by Emma Graham-Winkles, Oct. 2017.
Small sailboat run ashore after hurricane in Virgin Islands. Phto taken by Emma Graham-Winkles, Oct. 2017.