A damaged home on Jost van Dyke following the passage of Hurricane Irma on September 6, 2018. Photo: itv.com

Second District Representative Hon Melvin M. Turnbull, right, speaks to residents of Jost van Dyke days after Hurricane Irma struck the Virgin Islands. Photo: itv.com

Prominent Jost van Dyke resident and businessman, Gregory A. Callwood, left, on Honestly Speaking with Claude O. Skelton-Cline, right, on the February 6, 2018 edition of the show. Photo: Facebook

While a guest on the pre-recorded Honestly Speaking radio show with host, Claude O. Skelton- Cline broadcast last Tuesday February 6, 2018 on ZBVI 780 AM Radio, Mr Callwood shared his harrowing ordeal with listeners.

“What made it so ruff for me, my mom lost everything in the hurricane. She was on my mind because I was trying to get her to come to a safe location and she just wanted to stay at her house. It was on my mind so in the eye I went out to look for her.”

He went on to explain finding his mother in a state of despair, with a gaping head wound and a broken leg. According to him after her home was destroyed in the first half of the hurricane, she was attempting to get to him when she broke her leg and couldn’t move. “She’s sitting on the ground with her whole skull cap peeled off, with blood pouring, and I’m seeing her brain just pumping… so I had to drag her inside a building in Sand Castle for the other half of the storm,” Mr Callwood graphically stated.

As if that situation was not already traumatic, Mr Callwood had to endure three days and two nights trying his best to keep his mother alive with no medical assistance. “I started to smell her head getting stink...and she was on her way to dying,” he explained.

“Her head’s busted open and her leg’s broken and there was no one I could call for help. Nurse, no one in Jost van Dyke, there was not a doctor. I’m giving her fluids to keep her up and her eyes rolling and I’m say like this is the last I’m going to see my mom. I was petrified. There was no one, no VISAR, no one, no nurse, no doctor.”

US Coast Guards to the rescue

There is a clinic located on Jost van Dyke and a live-in nurse; however, there was no way to access the facility. “There was a nurse on the island, the nurse house went down. The nurse was damaged she couldn’t get over.”

Not ready to say good-bye to his mom, Mr Callwood sprung into action on day three. I walked over to where I got a boat and I used the VHF cause there was no one in the BVI I can call. I remembered Coast Guard monitors channel 22, so I got on 22 and I called US Coast Guard, US Coast Guard, and after a couple of calls they answered.”

Arriving quicker than they had indicated the US Coast Guard helicopter was able to airlift the injured woman to Puerto Rico “They went to White Bay and they sling down a sling and pulled her up and took her to Puerto Rico by the helicopter. She’s still undergoing therapy and up to this day she’s not back.”

Residents and visitors alike have criticised the National Democratic Party (NDP) government for their poor response in the aftermath of the hurricane. The presence of elected officials to assist and reassure persons was absent and many persons felt neglected.

The situation also showed the territory’s lack of  preparedness for a disaster, according to the host of the show.

Meanwhile, Honestly Speaking continues at 5:00 A.M. today, February 13, 2018 on ZBVI 780 AM Radio. The guest will be Leader of the Opposition Hon Andrew A. Fahie (R1).