By the time Alexandra Silva retreated into her interior bathroom to take shelter during Hurricane Irma, she couldn’t see a palm tree 15 feet from her front door. The rain on St. Thomas and St. John pelted the ground with such force that visibility was nil, and the murky midday darkness and howling wind gave an eerie vibe to an already terrifying situation. Pushing a mattress over the only window in her bathroom, Silva, an environmental educator on the island, sat down to wait.

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