{"id":91167,"date":"2019-12-22T11:42:57","date_gmt":"2019-12-22T15:42:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=91167"},"modified":"2019-12-22T11:42:57","modified_gmt":"2019-12-22T15:42:57","slug":"torn-apart-by-hurricane-irma-a-family-is-still-picking-up-the-pieces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/torn-apart-by-hurricane-irma-a-family-is-still-picking-up-the-pieces\/","title":{"rendered":"Torn Apart By Hurricane Irma, A Family Is Still Picking Up The Pieces"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Corine and James Gerald, Sr. have been married for nine years, but they have been living apart since Hurricane Irma’s 185-mph winds barreled into Barbuda in September 2017, forcing all 1,800 of the island’s residents to evacuate to Antigua.<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Irma has tested their relationship, their kids’ resiliency and their finances. Still, both Corine and James Sr. agree the sacrifices they’ve made and continue to make are worth it for their children, 13-year-old James Jr. and 11-year-old Jerrene.<\/p>

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All Barbuda’s 1,800 residents were evacuated during Hurricane Irma. Some have yet to return.<\/h2>\n

Corine is still as in love with James Sr. as when they first met. As she puts it, “We had a good relationship. We are the best of friends. If I had to marry again, I would marry the same person. I wouldn’t change a thing.”<\/p>\n

But when she looks back on the past two years, Corine wishes she could change how hard it’s been for her family. In the weeks after the storm, she and James Sr. agreed to split up temporarily. She remained in Antigua so the children could continue school, while James Sr., a carpenter, returned to Barbuda to help build back the island they all call home. Two years later, the family is still torn in two.<\/p>

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Corine Gerald and her children Jerrene, 11, and James Jr., 13, at their temporary home on Antigua. The children were traumatized after Hurricane Irma forced them to evacuate. A UNICEF counseling program helped.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 UNICEF\/UN0345649\/LEMOYNE<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At first, Corine and the children stayed with friends in Antigua. From there, facing competition from all the other evacuated Barbudans who were looking for housing on Antigua, along with Dominicans who had more recently arrived after Hurricane Maria, they moved into an abandoned house with no running water or electricity \u2014 quite a change from the two-story, four-bedroom home with a big, lush garden the tight-knit family of four shared back in Barbuda.<\/p>\n

After Hurricane Irma, the family moved into an abandoned house with no running water or electricity<\/h2>\n

“We had to live in the dark. We had to carry water in bottles,” Corine recalls. “When [the children] went to school, they had to hide from their friends because they didn’t want anybody to know where they were living.”<\/p>

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Bullied at school in Antigua, James Jr. has struggled to regain a sense of normalcy. He misses his dad, who returned to Barbuda to earn an income as a carpenter and rebuild the family home.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 UNICEF\/UNI227648\/LEMOYNE<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to James Sr., it was especially tough for his son. “He was bullied at school. He was really traumatized from the storm.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t get enough support. Maybe people didn\u2019t really understand what we went through.\u201d<\/p>\n