Nearly two full days after Hurricane Irma passed through St. John, Jerry was still hacking his way through the fallen debris around his home atop Bordeaux Mountain. He walked west from his home along Bordeaux Mountain Road, climbing over fallen trees and electrical lines, seeing views of Reef Bay and beyond that were now clearly visible through the slim sticks that remained. When Jerry finally made his way through the defeated rain forest to Centerline Road, what he saw was mind numbing.
What was once a vibrant mountaintop attraction for visitors, and a convenient meet-up spot for residents, now looked like a junkyard. A mangled SUV perched precariously atop a heap of debris, as if Mother Nature had carefully placed it there herself.
What remains of this tourist hot spot is a lone knee-high concrete wall. Across the street, the bright pink “Colorful Corner” gift shop now lives on only in memories. Where the store actually went is still a mystery, although the barren brown hills of St. John are spotted with homeless moldy mattresses and broken belongings. Tiny bits of shredded paper and torn fabric, terrorized from the trip, litter the landscape.