WWAY colleague talks about riding out Irma in Virgin Islands

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Hurricane Irma left its mark and impacted tens of thousands of people. Charlotte Atkins is one of those people.

“You kind of get ready and then you sit and wait and watch the weather channel and other sources of news to see whether it would change course,” Atkins said.

Atkins is in Wilmington because family friends invited her. She is a publisher for our sister company, Morris Caribbean Publications, in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. She bunkered down with her dog, Savannah, and others in her community to ride out the storm.

“My landlord sent a text. It was right after the power went out. The power went out at about 8 a.m., and he said, ‘This is going to be a Cat 5, and it’s headed right for us. Why don’t you come up the hill and stay with us? We don’t want you down there alone,'” Atkins said.

She says what she saw was beautiful and devastating at the same time.

“Just one square-foot window. That front window out the door, and we just took turns looking out of that, you know? I would stand up on a can of dog food and peer out,” Atkins said.

The experience scared her, and her memories of the hurricane can be hard to relive.

“The wind didn’t stop, but it suddenly down shifted. The sound dropped and it was sort of like in that moment, everybody in the room just stopped… and I think that was the moment we knew we were all OK,” Atkins said, holding back tears.

Right now, she can’t work out of her office in the Virgin Islands, so she’s in Wilmington for the time being. She will eventually return to the Virgin Islands and hopes others will, too.

“I do hope people come back and support our islands and help us rebuild American’s paradise,” Atkins said.

Morris Multimedia, the parent company of WWAY and Morris Caribbean Publications, has established a relief fund to help its network of employees and customers cope and recover through targeted relief in the wake of Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria. The company has established the Morris Hurricane Relief fund through the North Georgia Community Foundation to make sure the fund is administered properly and so that donations are tax deductible. The goal is to provide needed resources to the US Virgin Islands.

Click here to donate to the fund and to find out more about the impacts to our team members.