In a moment of reflection, I realize that throughout my entire professional life in the Virgin Islands, almost 30 years, I’ve worked every storm that has come this way — in very significant ways too, including coordinating shelters, facilitating special needs evacuations, supporting disaster SNAP and Individual and Family Assistance Programs with FEMA, working in the emergency operations center, organizing and dispensing emergency prescription medicines and host of other activities. From Luis, Marilyn, Bertha, Hortense, Omar, (Wrong Way) Lenny, and of course Irma and Maria, to Dorian, I’ve worked alongside some very good, talented and committed people.
What I’ve learned over the years is that you never get used to the human toll — the suffering that follows. Regardless of how we surmise it, people suffer; homes are destroyed; families separate; many lose their entire earthly possessions of a lifetime of their hard work; some lose their lives, while others break under the weight of the stress. During these traumatic times, communities usually put all else aside and come together to lessen the burden of the intense despair.
Recovery is never easy or quick. The longest recovery is the recovery that must occur within the mind, emotion and spirit of those, like us here in the Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico, Dominica, the British Virgin Islands, and now the Bahamas, who have survived to tell the tale. We are all eye witnesses to life altering tragedies that can only be fully understood by experiencing them.
Please, keep the people of the Bahamas in constant prayer and be of help when it’s called upon. Two years ago, we were just like the Bahamas. May God keep all of them, and us. And, please, be a blessing to someone!
Editor’s note: Moleto A. Smith Jr. is the executive director of the St. Thomas East End Medical Center Corporation and a former gubernatorial candidate.