Skip to content
  1. Home
  2. Local News

Surviving Irma: "They are in a state of emergency"

Port Coquitlam family flies home, a former Port Moody business woman stays put after dealing with the devastation from Hurricane Irma
Diane Strandberg
Irma
A view of some of the wreckage in the wake of Hurricane Irma on St. Maarten, a small island in the Caribbean that was devastated by the Category 5 hurricane. A mother and daughter from Port Coquitlam is headed to the U.S. after surviving the experience, but a former Port Moody woman is staying put but recalls the experience as terrifying.Mariel Chan

Local families that lived through Hurricane Irma on the tiny island of St. Maarten are pulling their lives together after a week of uncertainty and fear.

Mariel Chan, a former Archbishop Carney student and Port Coquitlam resident, and her mom Cecilia, were expected to land in Chicago later Monday after they were whisked off the Caribbean island by a plane chartered by the American University of the Caribbean, where Mariel is a first-year medical student.

Chan
Mariel and mom Cecilia Chan, of Port Coquitlam, are on their way back to North America from hurricane-devastated St. Maarten, where Mariel was in her first year in medical school. They are expected to land in Chicago today. Below are more photos of the wreckage by Mariel Chan, who is a graduate of Archbishop Carney in Port Coquitlam.

Alia and her father Alwyn, who works at Eagle Ridge Hospital, got the news Monday that their family was safe after a weekend spent worrying and petitioning the Canadian government to take action.

“We are blessed,” said Alia, “they’re safe.” However, the family would wait until Mariel and her mother landed in Chicago before making an official statement.

Irma cars

The two women had only been on the island a few days getting oriented for the first day of medical school when on Wednesday the hurricane struck. They spent a harrowing night in the school auditorium listening to the sound of the wind and rain and watching the palm trees way in the strong winds.

“I don’t think they have comprehended the situation they’ve been in,” Alia said. “They are in a state of emergency.”

Burns

Meanwhile, Catherine Burns, a former Port Moody resident who moved to St. Maarten over a year ago to start a consulting and training service, said she is reviewing her options in the wake of the destructive hurricane.

Although the home where she is staying survived the storm, there are concerns about looters and the family hasn’t cleared the yard of debris, which includes large chunks of concrete, a boat hatch and metal from other buildings.
“Were laying low on the clean-up mode," she told The Tri-City News. "The reason for that is the looting. We don’t want to look like anything's too hunky-dory, we want to lay low. We’ve heard there are people taking gas from your car. We’re just watching everything pretty closely and the dogs are great at alerting us .”

But there are good people in the area, too, such as the man who gave them 6 kg of ribs in exchange for coconuts that had dropped on the ground so the family was able to have a barbecue.

LIKE SOMETHING IN A MOVIE

But getting supplies in the future will be a challenge because the food and other goods usually come by container ship from Florida, which is also dealing with the hurricane.

The night the Category 5 hurricane swept over her house was like “something in a movie,” Burns said. It ripped open doors and shutters, and rain flooded into the house.

“I gotta tell ya, I would never have called a storm a name but this one is a bitch. I was terrified. We had heard in news reports about what happens as the winds get really strong — you feel it and your ears pop. Not only did that happen but when a gust of wind would come by, I was ducking. I didn’t know if the roof was coming over me.”

She is in the second year of her masters with Royal Roads and the University of St. Maarten is her sponsor. If the academic institution can’t get back up and running, and some of the courses she teaches are cancelled, Burns may have to consider returning to Canada.

Irma

In the meantime, she is living with her sister and brother in-law in a home near the water that withstood the violent hurricane but is still without electricity and running water.

Her own apartment is standing and can be inhabited when Burns is ready to leave the comfort of her family. Burns is also able to communicate via internet because the service has resumed and a portable battery allows her to recharge her phone.

“I can be useful here," she said. "I could be more supportive of organizations in the community."

Just a few days ago, Burns was ready to fly out on the next available plane after days without being able to communicate with her grown children, a son in Oregon, another on Vancouver Island and a daughter in Port Coquitlam.

“I was ‘Yeah, get me out of here.' But today, the sun came up and my rash isn’t as bad. I just ate oatmeal and I feel good.”

Burns also wants to shout out to her friends from Port Moody, where she worked at the Port Moody Station Museum, and beyond, to let them know she is safe.

"Tell my Port Moody family and friends I love them and miss them."

She also invited them to visit her in St. Maarten when the place gets cleaned up in a few months.