The St. Thomas Recovery Team (STRT) is the long-term recovery group of St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. STRT is made up of non-profit organizations focused on rebuilding and repairing owner-occupied homes that were damaged or destroyed during Hurricanes Irma & Maria in 2017, as well as 2019 Hurricane Dorian. STRT works to ensure that the most vulnerable among Virgin Islanders can safely return to their homes as quickly as possible.
St. Thomas currently has more than 8,000 homes that were severely damaged or destroyed during Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Many of these same families were impacted by Hurricane Dorian (2019) prior to their homes being rebuilt. Without access to traditional disaster-SBA loans and FEMA assistance, these elderly and low income homeowners have no other funding options when it comes to rebuilding their homes.
STRT has prioritized low income, elderly, disabled, single families, and other vulnerable members of the community who have no other resources or options available to rebuild their homes. By utilizing disaster rebuild volunteers, STRT will be able to rebuild homes that would not be able to be rebuilt otherwise.
St. Thomas felt the impact of major hurricanes in the '80s & '90s. Hurricane damaged homes have dotted the islands for 20-30+ years and St. Thomas is all too familiar with what happens when home owners don't have the resources to adequately rebuild. STRT plans to rebuild homes that were damaged during Irma & Maria so that the number of vacant, destroyed homes does not continue to grow. With each home that STRT is able to rebuild, another family will safely live in St. Thomas for generations.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
