A former Port Moody resident who survived a night of terror when Hurricane Irma slammed the Caribbean island of St. Maarten wants friends and family back in the Tri-Cities to know she’s OK.
“Tell them I love them and miss them,” said Catherine Burns, who has a daughter who lives in Port Coquitlam and was the co-ordinator of the Port Moody Station Museum before leaving the area to do her masters and consulting work on the divided island.
Now, with a third of the buildings on Dutch St. Maarten destroyed, Burns is reviewing her options. She said she could do more to assist people after the hurricane in her newly adopted home.
“I can be useful here, I could be more supportive of organizations in the community,” Burns told The Tri-City News.
Still, that wasn’t her view a few days ago, when she flashed a message on her Facebook page asking for help getting off the island.
“I gotta tell ya, I would never have called a storm a name but this one is a bitch," she wrote. "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.”
The night the Category 5 hurricane swept over her sister and brother-in-law's house, where she was staying, was like “something in a movie,” Burns said. It ripped open the doors and shutters, sending rain pouring in.
The wind came up at about 5 a.m. last Wednesday and the storm lasted about five hours. They managed to get the shutters secured and piled up furniture against the door, which was double-barricaded against the storm, but it was still a night to remember, Burns said.
The next day, they found large pieces of debris in their yard, including a boat hatch, pieces of someone’s roof and a large chunk of concrete.
Burns’ apartment also withstood the Category 5 storm but she's still at sister's, where there are provisions, including water and food. Water for washing comes from the swimming pool and the family has to rely on a small portable battery to power their cellphones.
But there is no electricity so the family has to be careful what they eat out of the freezer.
One evening, they ventured out to a nearby store and had to line up to get some basic supplies, hunting for them in the dark. It’s not known when more supplies will come but the Dutch government is sending in more troops to help after reports of looting, said Burns.
