Preliminary assessment: Sister Islands fared well during Dorian

By Esther Durand, BVI News Staff

Initial assessments of Anegada, Virgin Gorda and Jost Van Dyke indicate that all those sister islands fared well during the passage of Hurricane Dorian on Wednesday, August 28.

Junior Tourism Minister and Virgin Gorda resident Shereen Flax-Charles told BVI News that, as per her ‘informal assessment’, Virgin Gorda was not severely impacted.

“Everything seems to be intact. I’m not seeing much visible damage in the areas that I am in,” Flax-Charles told BVI News late Wednesday after the weather system had passed.

“I know there were a few issues such as one or two downed trees and electricity is out. But I think we fared pretty well baring the fact that we have not been able to do a full assessment of the entire destination. That is going to commence first thing in the morning as soon as the curfew is lifted,” she said.

Flax-Charles also reported that residents on the island are generally sanguine; notwithstanding Wednesday’s weather events.

“I visited the shelter in The Valley and there are only two people there and they are in pretty good spirits and happy that we were able to visit them,” she said.

Anegada

Meanwhile, Ninth District Representative Vincent Wheatley said Anegada is also doing well.

“Anegada suffered some rain and wind, but no damage. Everybody is ok, no injuries, no deaths, no structural damage of any sort. The only thing is on the western side, a large amount of sargassum came up during the storm,” he told BVI News.

Jost Van Dyke

Representative of the Second Second District where Jost Van Dyke is located, Melvin ‘Mitch’ Turnbull, gave a similar report about Jost during his interview with BVI News.

He said: “The district is good so far. In Jost Van Dyke, the people I spoke to are doing all right. It’s just some debris and rocks that fell off in the road, so that will be cleared soon.”

When the legislator spoke with our news centre following Dorian’s passing, he said that heavy equipment operators were on the ground clearing up the debris.

“Everybody is in good spirits. They are just thankful that it wasn’t as bad as it could be,” he further said.