VICE NEWS

Seven days after Hurricane Irma devastated two of the three major U.S. Virgin Islands, access to communication lines and critical supplies remain spotty and residents across the islands’ do not know how long recovery will take or what it will cost. The U.S. Virgin Islands are typically thought of as lush tourist getaways in the Caribbean. But the hills have turned brown. Many of the islands’ approximately 100,000 residents, who are American citizens on American soil, insist that the Category 5 storm was unlike anything they’ve weathered before. Irma is responsible for at least 38 confirmed deaths across the Caribbean, four of them in the US territories. The storm’s 185 mile-per-hour winds and water stripped away the entirety of St. John and St. Thomas of plant life and, according to USVI Governor Kenneth Mapp, left well over fifty percent of properties destroyed. Vice News’ Antonia Hylton spent time with residents who have almost nothing left.