Right away, Witnesses in Puerto Rico also began organizing a relief program. By the weekend after the storm, hundreds from unaffected areas of the island were descending on devastated towns to help repair houses. Also, two boats loaded with food, materials, and about 40 Witnesses sailed over to the small island of Culebra. The radio station there was soon praising the rebuilding work being done. The following weekend 112 Witnesses, accompanied by six tons of building materials, sailed to the little island of Vieques for similar reconstruction work.

Not until Friday, five days after the storm, were brothers from Puerto Rico able to rent a cargo plane and take food and medicine to St. Croix. One of the brothers reports: “From the air the whole island looked like a garbage dump. Entire villages were smashed and twisted. All over the hills were pieces of wood, metal, and debris; nothing green, just brown stumps of trees and burned grass, seared by wind gusts of up to 200 miles per hour [320 km/​hr].”

After ascertaining the extent of the damage, Witnesses shipped in some 75 tons of building supplies. During October, about a hundred volunteers from Puerto Rico helped the brothers on St. Croix rebuild. A Kingdom Hall served as a dormitory. Each day was begun with a discussion of a Bible text, just as is done at all branch offices of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Local Christian sisters washed, cleaned, and cooked for the brothers.

Sheila Williams had saved for years to build a new home, and she had just moved into it when Hugo destroyed it. When she heard that her Christian brothers were coming from Puerto Rico to help victims, she told her workmates. But they said: “They will not do anything for you. You are black, not Spanish like them.” What a surprise they received when Sheila soon had a completely new house!

Lower left: Sheila Williams with relief worker who helped rebuild her house that was destroyed