The island will be beautiful again

Hurricane Irma

Normally I will write a positive post about the Caribbean. This time I want to write to express the way I feel for all of the friends, families and business partners on the islands that got struck by hurricane Irma. I hope they all will read this and know that I think of them all the time.

It reminds you of what mother nature can do in a blink of an eye. I think we all need a reality check from time to time, to remind us how much we need to help others and depend on each other in bad times. It makes little things unimportant. I saw people asking for help on Facebook and saw all kinds of videos and pictures people posted. I spoke to one of my friends on St. Martin and she and the kids where safe. I was glad to hear that. But I had to ask if her apartment sustained damage. Her reaction made me cry. It was completely destroyed by the Hurricane. I tried to find pictures from that area and I saw that Maho beach was gone. The famous beach where everyone was waiting for the plane to take off.

The feeling

I saw a helicopter flying over the island the time after the storm. I felt sick to my stomach. A lot of work has to be done. I saw people driving along the road and the road just disappearing into the water. It looked like all the trees had been burned. All the poor dogs wandering. People were plundering because they lost their houses. It will take hard work for the people on the island trying to get it back to livable conditions for their families. It will take hard work cleaning up huge amounts of rubble. Thank god that we do not have hurricanes to endure where we come from. It looks like a war had gone on. Still the islanders will smile, have a kind word to say, and will go out of their way to make you welcome. I hope the island never goes through this again.