Although I was lucky enough to be off island when both Irma and the Maria rolled through, my love for Saint Croix brought me home well before power had been restored to most of the island. I moved back the very beginning of December and experienced life at home and on the roads without power until mid January.
Luckily I grew up camping so that’s the mind frame I kept for the 40+ days I was without, and keep in mind this is only a fraction of the time others who stayed on island went through.
During that time the main frustrations for me were finding a place to charge up my electronic devices, keeping food cold in the house (the amount of ice we all went through is mind blowing), waiting in line to get gas, and anything that requires running water.
I also dreaded the drive home from work at night, with no traffic lights telling anyone green for go or red for stop made for a sketchy situation made worse only by the fact that there were also no street lights to illuminate your path. For those of you who have never visited any of the Virgin Islands, you should know that our roads are not the most well kept roads that one has ever traveled... and if you thought they were bad before the storm, they were only that much worse post storm. Trying to navigate both traffic and pot holes in the pitch black of night was not my idea of a good time.
Somehow though, as a community, we made it work. Luckily this island has always impressed me when it comes to curtious driving.
Then finally came the day I was over an hour late for work because the linemen had finally made it up the hill I live on to replace our lines. I have never been happier to be late to work or been greeted at my work with such positivity for being late to work in my life.
