They’ve been in the Turks and Caicos for days -- but all the Joaquim family wants to do is go home.
“We’re definitely hanging in there but every day it’s getting a little harder,” Annie Joaquim said in a video call with News 4. “And the fact that we don’t have eyes on a day when we may be getting out of here is making it harder.”
Joaquim says she, her husband and two young children are among the hundreds of vacationers marooned in wrecked cabanas and powerless, flooded resort across the Caribbean after Hurricane Irene pummeled the region. For the Joaquims, it meant being adrift at the Beaches Turks & Caicos Resort Villages & Spa on the small island Providenciales waiting for a chance to get home.
“We could be in trouble here,” she said. “We want to get out.”
The Joaquims left from their home in Westwood for their vacation, they knew Irma was approaching. But she said they figured they would be able to weather the storm, even as the first person they greeted on the island told them to leave.
“We got to customs in Turks and Caicos, and the lady was like ‘you’re crazy, turn around go home!’ she said.
Irma, then a category 5 storm, skirted the archipelago on Sept. 7, blasting the low-lying islands with powerful winds, eroding storm surge and downpours. When the storm passed, the resort was left in ruins; four days later, and it’s still closed to visitors.
“The storm was the scariest thing in the entire world,” she recalled.
The mother said that after the storm, the restaurants where they would have normally eaten, are closed and they have to climb over downed trees and debris just to get around. Electricity and water are both spotty, and they don’t have the comfort of air conditioning or clean clothes.
“We’re dripping in sweat all day and all night,” she said. “It makes it hard for the kids to sleep, especially because they don’t really understand what’s going on.
But there are silver linings. None of the Joaquims were hurt in the storm. Resort workers are serving food to the Joaquims and nearly 600 other guests stuck at the resort. And flights will begin shuttling guests back to the United States on Wednesday.
And with any luck, the family should be able to make it home without extending their trip too much longer.
Photo Credit: Provided by the Joaquim family
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