On the U.S. Virgin Islands, anger and resentment after Irma
by E. A. Crundon at Think Progress
https://thinkprogress.org/virgin-islands-irma-disaster-244425a70fdc/
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Residents of the U.S. Virgin Islands have seemingly been left to fend for themselves in the days following Hurricane Irma’s destructive blitz — leaving many feeling uncared for and overlooked.
News coverage relating to Irma — which hit several Caribbean islands as a Category 5 hurricane before striking Florida as a slightly less alarming Category 3 storm — has focused almost entirely on the mainland United States. Irma’s impact has definitely weighed heavily on the mainland: millions of Floridians have been without power since the hurricane hit, and South Carolina is now grappling with severe flooding. But elsewhere, a humanitarian disaster has unfolded, one terrifying islanders, many of whom are infuriated by the lack of attention.
“The government is treating us terrible,” U.S. Virgin Islands resident Ureen Smith, 55, told the New York Times. Smith lived next to a building where one of the four deaths connected to Irma on the islands was reported. She told the Times that resentment towards the U.S. government following the hurricane has grown steadily in the days since the storm made landfall. “Locals are mad they’re not hearing talk about St. Thomas,” she said, referring to one of the islands.
With so much focus on the mainland, residents of places like the Virgin Islands, which is considered U.S. soil but barred from full voting rights, have become increasingly desperate. Around 100,000 people live full-time on the islands, many of whom work in tourism — a precarious industry at the mercy of natural disasters and human interest. The islands have also suffered from financial woes in recent years, borrowing from disaster insurance in order to pay for other needs. Now, residents are contending with a long-term crisis, one heightened by a seeming lack of outside concern.
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