Despite Hurricane Irma’s efforts, tiny St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands, is still standing, albeit with damage. Photo: Yvonne O’Neal
By Mary Frances Schjonberg and Amy Sowder | September 15, 2017
[Episcopal News Service] Yvonne O’Neal believes that she crossed paths with more than one angel in the last week in Spanish Town on Virgin Gorda. In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, complete strangers helped her leave the decimated island and get back to her home in New York.
O’Neal, who was born on Tortola to parents from Virgin Gorda and grew up in Puerto Rico, had been in the Virgin Islands since July, when she came for an extended stay. In early August, she had gotten drenched in a massive rain storm during an Emancipation Day parade, but that experience was nothing like what was to come with Irma a month later.
