From the outside, it looks like a typical primary school in the multi-island Caribbean nation of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), with children’s voices echoing behind the distinctive green walls. But inside, washing lines sag with the weight of towels and clothes, and there are people of all ages: a baby frets on her mother’s hip, children squeal as they chase each other, teens play basketball, and elderly people sit on classroom chairs chatting.
This school in the district of Calliaqua is one of 20 on the country’s mainland, St Vincent, which were converted into shelters for those displaced by Hurricane Beryl, the category 4 storm which tore through the region in early July with winds of up to 120mph (193km/h).
Some of the 30 people at this shelter arrived with nothing but the clothes on their backs. During the hurricane, many had spent hours hiding under beds or staircases or huddled in cupboards and bathrooms as Beryl ripped off their doors and windows, dismantled their roofs, smashed through their walls and tossed their appliances into the wind.
Six weeks on, nature has calmed down, reverting to the quiet, stunning beauty that defines SVG. But many in the shelters remain trapped in the horror of the storm, reliving those hours of terror.
“A lot of people are traumatised,” said the shelter manager, Josel Matthews. Some survivors refused to eat for days, staring off into space or breaking into sobs, she said. Some are now working with counsellors provided by the government.
And though the hurricane is over, they still need other kinds of help because they remain homeless, and their businesses and their jobs are still gone, said Kelly-Ann Neverson, a manager for another shelter in the country’s capital, Kingstown.
“The challenge for them is that they have lost not just their homes but also their livelihoods. Most of them are boat captains, chefs, and fishermen,” she said.
But speaking with shelter residents, it is clear that – driven by the resilience and ambition that define their culture and identities – they are eager to get back on their feet and provide for their families.
Julian Mason, 37, a builder on the island of Union, where 90% of buildings were destroyed, said: “I lost all my tools, so I have to turn down work. That’s my biggest problem right now.”
Susan Jacobs, 52, lost her home and the restaurant-cum-bar that supported her family. Now her greatest need is “a foundation to build on, to work on, where I can feed myself and my family”.
The hurricane had etched new landscapes, said Jacobs. “Where I’ve lived for years, I have never before been able to see the ocean from my house, until the morning after Beryl,” she said.
For some people in shelters, it is still hard to imagine returning to the new reality that Beryl left in its wake.
Rakysha Lavia, 35, from Union, said: “When I went back home, I had to fight the tears. I was there for less than an hour, and I was already depressed. I can’t spend more time on the island.” She was forced to seek refuge in a shelter in Kingstown after her home was destroyed, but is eager to get help to rebuild her small business, crocheting handbags, bikinis and clothes, after she lost all her knitting supplies.
Many people from Union, Mayreau and Canouan, the SVG islands that bore the brunt of Beryl’s wrath, are still living in shelters on mainland St Vincent, with schools, churches and private homes hosting hundreds of families. But some are toughing it out in the Grenadine islands despite having no running water or any way of preparing food, limited electricity and temporary tarpaulin roofs that leak when it rains. Many of them are involved in the rebuilding effort.
On Canouan, Rania Sassin, the station manager for the SVG Air airline, is volunteering her time and vehicle to help government officials on assessment visits. She is also supporting her eight-year-old son, who was locked in a cupboard for hours during the hurricane and is now frightened whenever it rains.
His fears of another hurricane are shared by many on Canouan. “It’s a bit scary because, before, we used to love it when it rained in the Grenadines because rain is a blessing to us as it’s our source of water. But now, when it rains, we’ll be like, no, not today,” said Sassin.
Across the sea in Mayreau, the smallest inhabited Grenadine island with a population of under 300, residents are mainly concerned about water supply.
Before the storm, islanders had depended on rainwater harvested from galvanised steel roofs, but most of them were damaged in the storm, and most storage tanks were blown away, said Marion Isaacs, a community leader and president of the We are Mayreau grassroots collective.
She said: “We are now in a very vulnerable position where we may not be able to store enough water, especially as we move into the dry season, so we are not refusing water or options for making water.”
The devastation on Canoun and Mayreau is extensive and the humanitarian crisis on both islands is severe, but upon landing on Union it is immediately clear that Beryl has left the island almost uninhabitable.
From the damaged airport – which, like Mayreau and Union, is closed to commercial travel – to the seaport where ships are bringing in relief and supplies, the island has become a large construction site.
Amid the skeletons of gutted and precariously standing houses are mountains of zinc roofing collected from the debris and heavy-duty trucks ready to take them to the port to be shipped off to Trinidad for disposal.
Most of the people on the ground are army personnel, construction or aid workers. Along with the few remaining residents, they are busy trying to kickstart the long rebuilding process in a thick, oppressive heat.
David Bullock, from the humanitarian organisation React, which is supporting the SVG government’s response, said: “We initially came in through Canouan and saw the heartbreaking level of devastation and a requirement for humanitarian support. And then we came across to Union to find that the level of devastation was enormous in comparison to what we’d just seen. That drove us very hard and created a sense of urgency.”.
His colleague Kirsten Bailey said they were working with organisations such as the World Food Kitchen to support the rebuilding of water systems and the provision of food and shelter.
Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of SVG, who is coordinating the task of restoring electricity and water supplies, rebuilding homes, managing a dengue outbreak, addressing the needs of those who have been displaced, and finding new accommodation so that schools can reopen in September, has repeated his calls for more support from developed countries and international financial institutions.
On a visit to the affected islands with his cabinet last week, he said: “We’re not getting a lot of grants, so we have to try and negotiate loans or take money from our taxes. The problem is that our debt will increase, and then you have people who will tell you that your debt is too high – but the debt increases because of all the relief, recovery, and rebuilding we have had to undertake.”
“Since 2002 this is the 12th emergency I’ve had to deal with. Eleven of them were natural disasters, including the La Soufriere volcanic eruption and, of course, Covid. But in terms of weather events, this is the 10th one.”
Last month, the prime minister joined other Caribbean leaders, including Grenada’s Dickon Mitchell, whose islands have also suffered extreme devastation, to appeal to the UK government to back a “Marshall plan” to rebuild their countries.
In response to their letter, Rachel Reeves, the British chancellor, has pledged to work with international partners “to deliver coordinated support on debt to help break the cycle of debt” facing vulnerable countries and to strengthen their resilience.
Some Hurricane Beryl survivors echo government concerns that more support should be given to those living on the frontline of the climate crisis.
Lavia, from Union, said: “So much is being done to destroy the planet, and then these kinds of things happen. More efforts should be made to help people in our situation.”
