Back-to-back hurricanes may have blown a generation of Virgin Islanders out of the middle class

Shredded roofs, shattered lives

Back-to-back hurricanes may have blown a generation of Virgin Islanders out of the middle class

Story by Tim Craig Photos by Bonnie Jo Mount
FEBRUARY 6, 2018

ST. THOMAS, U.S. Virgin Islands

More than four months after back-to-back hurricanes shredded the roof of his house, Charles Caines feels as if he’s “living in a tent in the jungle.” Sleeping under a blue tarp draped on the roof’s steel beams, he and his wife are fending off lizards, frogs, rats and mosquitoes in what remains of their home.

Caines spent much of his life stockpiling his paychecks of up to $700 a week to buy a home. Now, the 72-year-old worries that the Category 5 storms that took his roof also blew him and an entire generation of Virgin Islanders out of the middle class.

“I’m now going to die in debt,” said Caines, who expects repairs to his home will cost $100,000, far exceeding his savings or expected insurance payout. “It feels like hell,” he said. “I didn’t get the assistance I needed, and now I’m out here suffering.”

With similar stories of grief and hardship throughout St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix — the three major islands that make up the territory — there is growing concern that a ­decades-long drive to build up a broad middle class has been snuffed out by the storms.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/national/wp/2018/02/06/feature/as-tourism-returns-hurricane-recovery-in-the-virgin-islands-is-leaving-some-residents-behind