5 • Continued from previous page Chapter 13 - Gunpoint Diane Drayton is a strong mother of two and a grandmother. She spent Hurricane Irma in the family home her father originally built and she later expanded to house her own family at Todman Estate, Tortola. Diane’s mother, Mrs Adeline Leonard, a darling 87-year-old, still resided at the home under Diane’s attentive care. Both in their late twenties now, her daughters Tishan and Chelsea, along with Chelsea’s adorable three-year-old son, Micah, had moved to their own places. However, the family came together at the familiar family home to ride out Irma. They were joined by a good family friend, Christine, who would have otherwise spent Irma alone. power of a category 5 hurricane. As the Press Officer for the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force I was well-informed about Irma and had been tracking the storm closely. Leaning on the side of caution, I was preparing for a direct hit despite the chance of it going slightly north. While the situation and threat were serious, it all seemed manageable up until that weekend when it was still in the region of a reasonable storm, a Category 3. The house had withstood several Category 3 and 4 hurricanes without any serious damage. I remember hearing on Monday or Tuesday that Irma had strengthened to a Category 5 with sustained winds of 175 miles per hour and then 185 miles per hour. Disbelief was the feeling. “Something must be wrong,” I thought. “That’s unreal, unheard of! Those numbers just can’t be right, something must be wrong,” I kept telling myself. “Nothing can withstand that kind of wind force!” The situation was unnerving. Sitting at the crest of a hill, fully exposed to the north side of the island, I knew that geographically the house was in a vulnerable spot. But you can’t pick up your house and move it, you can only do everything in your power to prepare and prepare we did. We had made all the plans to ensure that by Tuesday, the day before the storm, the house was squared away. I didn’t cut any corners. Our trusty handyman, Hugh, ensured that all the hurricane shutters, both in the vacant upstairs unit and in the downstairs unit where Mom and I lived, were securely in place. Apart from the fact that we lived in the downstairs unit, we had made a conscious decision to ride out the storm in that space. With our hurricane shutters in place, solid walls around us and partly sitting under a concrete roof in the back half of the unit, though naturally nervous, we felt reasonably safe. In my wildest dreams, I would never have predicted the reality that unfolded. Tuesday night found us all at Todman Estate. We secured the cars and did some last-minute preparations around the house. Already, every now and then you could hear a howling gust sweep up and over the hill, forewarning of Irma’s arrival. I remember viewing a video sent through WhatsApp of Irma pounding one of the other islands on its way to us. Irma was blowing trees across the landmass there as if they were cotton balls on toothpicks. I thought, “God has to intervene here!” Anticipating downed lines by sometime early in the morning we used the last hours of communication to reach out to friends in the outside world and request prayers. We woke up to no electricity the following morning. With the winds already picking up we decided to quickly cook some breakfast and shut off the gas lines while it was still safe enough to go outside. As the morning wore on and the storm really set in the family settled into the living room. We conversed and sang together. Unknown to us at the time, • Continues on next page
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