Carmen Huertas, 54, walks through the skeleton of her family's house, which was damaged in Hurricane Maria and has only been partially repaired. Although Huertas is blind, she still recognizes what each room in the house used to be.
Mable Powell, who is blind, waits for a paratransit bus to pick her up from a Virgin Islands Association for Independent Living meeting on June 26, 2019. The VITRAN system provides transportation to people with disabilities who cannot drive themselves.
Carmen Huertas and Gerard Evelyn board paratransit buses after a Virgin Islands Association for Independent Living meeting on June 26, 2019. People who face barriers to living independently, such as low vision or reliance on dialysis, attend these meetings on Wednesdays.
A church in the U.S. Virgin Islands remains damaged nearly two years after the 2017 hurricane season. The congregation meets in remaining floors on the ground floor and continues to carry out missions trips and services.
Carmen Huertas, 54,
walks through the skeleton of her family's house in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which was damaged in Hurricane Maria and has only been partially repaired. Although Huertas is blind, she still remembers the function of each destroyed room. She and her elderly parents live in the three rooms in the back of the house that have been rebuilt.
Norma and Guillermo Huertas sit with their daughter Carmen, center, in their bedroom on June 27, 2019. Guillermo has dementia and his wife is hesitant to move away because those who live nearby know him in the neighborhood and recognize him if he wanders off.
Gerard Evelyn turns on a kitchen light at his house in Frederiksted, St. Croix. Evelyn lost his vision six years ago due to a complication from diabetes and believes that people and government agencies tend to disregard younger people who have disabilities, instead assuming that only the elderly need assistance during disasters. Following the 2017 hurricane season, Evelyn's house was damaged and he lost power that he needed to keep insulin cold.
A neighborhood in Frederiksted, St. Croix. Residents of Frederiksted said that FEMA had a hard time navigating the area when they came to inspect the state of houses and provide assistance, especially because many of the houses do not have numbers and many streets are called unofficial names.
Gerard Evelyn's floor still has water damage from the 2017 hurricane season, which can make it difficult for him to navigate with his cane.
Michael Farrington of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, holds a copy of his wife's funeral program at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation. Marie Catherine de Lugo-Farrington was medically evacuated to Puerto Rico before Hurricane Irma, then evacuated to the mainland before Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico. She died shortly after Farrington brought her home to St. Thomas. He says FEMA did a poor job of tracking patients who were medically evacuated.
Ruby Simmonds Esannason holds the funeral program of her son-in-law, Aaron Kelly Hodge, Sr. at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation on St. Thomas. Hodge died in Atlanta, Ga., after being medically evacuated from St. Thomas.
The pathway to Ji
m Kerr's cabin on St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. The ropes were installed after the 78-year-old Kerr, who is blind, had a hard time making his way up from his cabin during Hurricane Maria.
Jim Kerr finds it difficult to navigate his own cabin without vision and he has to have meals delivered to him.
