An Island Parish: After the Hurricane

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After the Hurricane

23/02/2018

BBC Two - An Island Parish, After the Hurricane

In the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Irma, islanders on Anguilla begin to rebuild.

After Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful storms in Caribbean history, cameras return to the island parish of Anguilla to see how the community is surviving and rebuilding.

A year after the Island Parish series celebrated the close church community and relaxed way of life on the Caribbean island of Anguilla, cameras return to Britain's overseas territory in the aftermath of one of the most powerful hurricanes in recorded history. Hurricane Irma swept through Anguilla on 6 September 2017. A month on from the storm, islanders are still coming to terms with the devastation that it caused.

When Simone Connor and her father Neville return to their restaurant and leisure complex on a beautiful sandbank, they discover that everything from kitchen appliances to palm trees and the buildings themselves have been blown away, never to be seen again. Dr Linda Banks, a pillar of Anguillian society, is entering her fifth week without power, meaning that the only way to get water to her house is with a bucket.

It is not just the human population that is struggling in the wake of Irma. The Caribbean island is a popular breeding and foraging habitat for turtles, but when conservationists Jan and Farah look for nests buried before the hurricane, they find that most have been destroyed. Life on Anguilla has changed dramatically and to make matters worse, most holidaymakers, on whom Anguilla's small economy depends, have cancelled their reservations. 

Doing what he can to help the island through the crisis is Anguilla's new British governor Tim Foy, who arrived just two weeks before Irma struck. He has the massive task of co-ordinating Britain's response to the hurricane, helping to restore power and rebuild the ferry port and airport, both badly damaged in the storm. Such is the extent of the devastation that it would be easy to give up, but the islanders of Anguilla remain surprisingly positive and stoic, thanks in part to Bishop Errol Brooks and Father Menes Hodge of the Anglican Church, who do their utmost to preserve their parishioners' strong and unerring faith.

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