TEN MONTHS LATER

Ten months may seem long for most people, but for residents of St. John, USVI, September 6th, 2017 feels like it was just yesterday.

“It was really noisy and there was no getting away from it. It was just everywhere around you and it just kept getting noisier and noisier. I could hear the trees crack and I knew I shouldn’t go down stairs because if I did, I would be flattened. I couldn’t get out… there was a tree across the front door. It’s like a train wreck, you know its coming, but you can’t do anything about it.”

Ranking both as Category 5 hurricanes, Irma and Maria were two of the most catastrophic hurricanes that have ever hit the US Virgin Islands. Reaching 180 mph, congresswoman Stacey Plaskett stated that 90% of buildings in the Virgin Islands were damaged or destroyed and 13,000 of those buildings had lost their roofs.

On the nine month anniversary of Hurricanes Irma and Maria’s destruction of the USVI, I spent the day with homeowner Pam Feldman sorting through her personal belongings found among the wreckage. Pam’s property became very well known by all the volunteers of All Hands and Hearts – Smart Response. Together, we had spent over five weeks and more than 1,362.5 volunteer hours helping Pam transform where her home once stood.

As we sorted through her prized possessions and walked down memory lane; Pam was brave enough to tell me how she experienced and survived the storm.

“It was noisy, I remember I was talking with my sister on the phone in the kitchen upstairs and I was talking to her yelling, ‘Loie I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you.’ I couldn’t hear her because it was so loud, it was so loud, it was deafening. She said, ‘are you alright?’ I said, Loie I’m gonna go down, the house is gonna go down. She started crying and asking what I was gonna do. I didn’t want to let go of her on the phone.”

“You don’t know if you are going to live or die, but there is no point in giving it anytime because it happens so quick.”

“My roof was a point, not flat, and I landed right in the middle of the roof point, like I was in a pyramid. My hand was on the ceiling fan (still attached to the roof) which had been 30 feet up and I looked to the right and on top of the blade of the ceiling fan was a blue glass bowl and it wasn’t broken. I don’t know how it got out of the kitchen, under the roof and was sitting on the top blade of the ceiling fan. How can that even happen, it was in a bin under a sink. So I thought maybe my dad’s spirit was there and I asked him what was I going to do and he said, you are going to get out of there.”

Taking a moment to reflect on the progress she has made, Pam looks over all the personal items which we had salvaged. As her gaze wandered between her scattered possessions, Her eyes lit up. Standing tall and head held high, she knew that Hurricanes Irma and Maria would not win.

“There were things that I never thought I would see again, if someone my age came and looked at all this they would say I have nothing. There is something here that didn’t break and you guys found so much that didn’t break.”

Pam Feldman is a real life dream catcher. From a young age Pam was a free spirit, living in over 15 different locations all over the world, including Egypt, Israel, and Hawaii. She met her husband while traveling abroad and had a beautiful baby boy. Her husband’s wanderlust kept him on his own path, and he never joined Pam on her own endeavors. Despite these challenges, Pam never lost her wild and loving personality. In time, funds grew low, and with her 5-year-old son clinging to her leg, she realized she needed a more stable environment. With her son and her memories in tow, she moved to Oregon.

Her husband sailed the South Pacific for a time. As the years passed by, Pam continued to live her own life with their son. Pam was one day sideswiped by an unwelcome call, informing her that her husband had passed away. To her surprise, she discovered that he was able to obtain and build on one of the last pieces of land facing Fish Bay in St. John, USVI. When she opened the door to the house, she discovered rooms full of trinkets and memories from their adventures all across the world. Her husband put all of their lives into this place, leaving Pam with a beautiful home where she would raise her son and grandson for the next 25 years.

Unfortunately, Pam ended up losing her home to the storm, erasing the last physical connections she had to her husband. She has moved into a tiny shanty as she slowly tries to recollect all the memories lost in the storm. Pam has taken the loss of her home with stride, and with unfaltering faith and love.

For Pam, the journey to recovery has just begun. Just as a dream catcher blocks out bad dreams and negative energy, Pam overcomes all obstacles, no matter the circumstances, turning each experience into something beautiful. “I don’t know what my next steps are but you guys have helped me move forward. I will rebuild and move back to my home as soon as it is possible.” Pam is now a part of the All Hands and Hearts family, and we will continue to fight this battle with her and together, we will win.

FOOTNOTES
Story and photography by Jessica Prinsloo for All Hands and Hearts

St. John, USVI