Hurricane Irma
Trump reportedly will visit the U.S. Virgin Islands as residents of the devastated territory beg for help
President Trump will travel to the U.S. Virgin Islands within the next week "to see firsthand the damages of the territory" after Hurricane Irma, Gov. Kenneth Mapp (I) said Monday.
The U.S. Virgin Islands took a heavy hit by the superstorm, which was a Category 5 when it swept through the Caribbean. The aftermath has left the territory "like a war zone," residents told BuzzFeed News, with congressional representative Stacey Plaskett informing MSNBC that "we've lost about 70 percent of our infrastructure and utility system on St. Thomas and all our utility system on the island of St. John."
"Everyone back home kept saying 'help is on the way' or 'help is there handing out supplies,' but people were looting from homes and businesses," a St. Thomas resident, Emily Minor, told BuzzFeed News. "It honestly got to the point where we were scared and we had a machete on us at all times."
Another local, Ureen Smith, told The New York Times that "the government is treating us terrible."
"Locals are mad they're not hearing talk about St. Thomas," Smith said.
Mapp assured residents that is going to change, The Washington Examiner reports. "The president wanted me to let the people of the Virgin Islands know that as he speaks of hurricane victims going forward, that he definitely will be including the U.S. Virgin Islands in his list of places that the federal government will be taking care of," Mapp said.