You did a better job than any news crew ever did. You stepped up and showed what it takes to survive, fire, vandals, lack of the basic necessities. You could see the drain in your face each day. As for the News Crews, they retreat back to their home base after two days.....onto the next story.......

I'm sympathetic but I really have to roll my eyes. On the islands that are independent we have had to wait weeeeks for running water and mooonths for electricity to return. I've lived through 16 hurricanes and for weeks my kids and I bathed in the ocean and dragged water by hand from cisterns and streams and collected rain water for drinking. I'm a poor woman, but I worked hard at keeping my kids happy without expecting instant help from any government. A cat 5 hurricane is dangerous for planes and ships and it takes time to send people across the Atlantic to help. They can't start moving men and supplies until the weather clears and they know what each island needs. Storing food and water enough to last a week before the hurricane is customary in most households. Why must people act as if things should return to normal quickly? Tragedies happen all over the world on a daily basis. People die horrible deaths. A hurricane is a fairly common occurrence and seldom causes death if people prepare wisely.

You are a brave man, thanks for sharing, God is with you and all the people that suffered due to this storms.

Thank-you for taking the time to make this video as it was VERY informative and VERY well done and it allowed me to see what you dealt with for an entire week. What a kind soul you have to not go to the Dutch side but rather stay on the British side so you could help out as many of your neighbors and friends as possible. I'm so Thankful to know that the US Airforce came to your rescue after an entire week of you remaining strong, hopeful, being patient and persevering and that the Salvation Army fed you once you made it to Puerto Rico. I've been standing in the gap in prayer for St Marteen since before historical hurricane Irma hit and I knew things were bad because a former classmate of mine, her son and daughter in law were living on the island when Irma hit and the place they were living in was destroyed completely, search and rescue found them and took them to a shelter and about a week later they relocated to Chicago. I'm glad that you are now in New York and once again THANK-YOU for making this video as it helps us here in America to understand what you went through and GOD BLESS YOU.

Shame on all the looters! Even if u poor, never ever do that. Shame on them!

Glad you are safe. Sending good wishes to the wonderful Island and People of St. Martin

Unbelievable...Thank you for sharing this.

Thank God you were saved from Irma fury. Thanks for the film. You're doing better than the TV news.

The best video yet. Thank you so much. Your unit is near our home away from home. the whole situation I cant wrap my head around yet

This is a really good vlog. I'm surprised nobody saw something like this happening before it did. You would think there would be fresh water wells dug for emergencies like this. Or rainwater catchment and filtration systems in homes. Also dried food that would last a decade or more. I'm also surprised about the looting. Most people come together in these situations, but I guess the small few ruin it for everyone, literally.

So sorry, to make it through the storm and then this happens! Thank you Derek for posting this and letting us know you survived. St. Maarten will always have a place in our hearts.

Glad you made it safely. So many take for granted housing, food and the infrastructure of electricity, gas, water, telecommunications and services such as police, fire and medical personnel, until it is gone. We are so blessed and some just do not grasp our reality is not others. Thank you for sharing your experience. I hope everyone involved, in the devastated areas of the hurricanes path, is cared for and proper aide and assistance is provided.

My heart goes out to all of you. This is just crushing. God bless you. All of you.

I could finally watch this bad time for my island back 1 year later and thank god for everything

Just glad you're okay my friend!

Thanks for this. I love that little village.

Tears running down my face watching this..... my heart is breaking for everyone....

Thanks for sharing. It's unbelievable how much damage Irma left. 😱 Greetings from Germany.

Thank you for doing this video it provides useful insight in to the mindset of what I fear is a significant part of the population

Well done video Derek!! Who needs Cable TV when we have people like yourself showing the real situation there. Hope all is well with your friends there. Plan on going back in the future. St-Maarten will be back strong!

thanks for that lovely video, well done, you did a great job to let the world know what's going on am so oooooooo sorry my heart and pray are with you all

Ur a great man for helping & showing us the truth of what went on.

Thank you for showing truth..more people need to see this. Thank God you are ok

What a video!! What awful suffering(the storm, looters, fire , lack of basic essentials of life and fear about the future) these hurricane victims are facing. They certainly need our prayers and help from their mother countries.

Crazy times we are all living in.

Great job reporting on the trajedy. Thanks for getting the truth out.

Good reporting and video. Thank you for taking the time to put this together.

You displayed a great deal of poise,resolve and courage under extreme conditions. Salute to you Sir. Distant friend. Loki👤.

Wow,Amazing!! Great job filming this. Hope you guys are ok.

I visited St Martin this January- my heart went out to all the citizens that were still trying to reciprocate from hurricane Irma.

Hope St Maarten and other areas hit by these Hurricanes are helped soon and get back to normal as soon as possible. I visited St Maarten a few years ago on a cruise and thought it was a beautiful place. Once things are somewhat back to normal I would like to come back.

I also was vlogging from West Palm Beach. I did 5 days without power with curfew every night at 7pm. The heat in my apartment at night without ac was unbearable. I'm originally from Jamaica and have been in some worst conditions from Hurricanes so I had to just adapt to the conditions to survive. (Subscribed)

So much for living in Caribbeans ...

Thank u for this video. I hope all is well now.

Why did you not evacuate BEFORE Irma hit when the authorities were repeatedly warning everyone to leave?

Thank you for helping!!!

In few more days it will make 2 years ☝🏽that hurricane tramautize everyone in different ways ...Prayers for Bahamas in time everything will get back to normal ☝🏽💯

Irma did a number on my house. I was just telling my husband that I have been through so many hurricanes now that I can't distinguish between them anymore. From the personality of the storm to the damage we received from them they're all starting to blur together. Spent 39 years of my life in Florida, Broward and central. Moved to north Carolina last year and got hit by Florence 6 months later.

I'm so sorry. God bless

Man you did a great job on your video I live in Florida and haven't seen any of this on the news. Looks like you are one of the lucky ones who got out before Hurricane Marie

Amazing VLog! 👍

That's very heartbreaking 😓💔😓💔😓💔

That's a day I will never forget, we lost everything and became homeless, the most painful part was when we found my dog dead out side, he was in the house and got lose after the kitchen door blew open. I thought I was going to die that day it was very scary

Great job...So glad you were able to film so much. I was right around the corner from you when you filmed the storm. We were evacuated on the 10th of September. I hope my unit doesn't get looted.

I'm heart broken! So many nice memories in this area

Oh my goodness thank your for sharing your experience. We love SMX and are heartbroken for all the horror and future difficulty they are going through. We found something cool that may help out folks there. If you know anyone who lost their home, maybe share this youtube with them. Aircrete Dome home. There are four workshops happening in the near future not far from SMX (Mexico and PHillipines and some other island) to learn how to build one. But I think if someone has some experience building they could do this with the plans from the company. We are in line to host a workshop but it is not til next year probably in September. These little homes can be built in only ten days total including sub floor and foundation for only about 3000.00 if you do a single, but multiple rooms of course is an option. Anyway, it is amazing how inexpensive and very few supplies or skill needed to build. We have been reaching out to people at our resort there (Oyster Bay Beach Club) to try to turn folks there on to this option to get a shelter up in very quick time with no heavy equipment needed. Good bless.

Thanks for sharing your story

Ships need to come in and evacuate all of these folks.. It is insane to even think of staying.

*I am happy that you all lived and now safe. I have been through hurricane Andrew, Category 5+ ( They were unable to determine the accurate wind speeds so that the "+". It tore the families houses down to ruble. We ourselves nearly faced Irma in Tampa Bay but it struck in Naples. I have been through what you have near equal but we lost everything where you visited the island. The only thing different, we had quicker rescue responses than you all did. The truth of the matter, Neither you or I would want a category 5 upon anyone, it is a wrapth of pure evil. Unfortunately my parents summer home in Little Torch Key ( lower keys 26 miles from key West ) was destroyed with Irma as a cat 5 as well. Fortunately none of my family was there at that moment. The lower keys still has not been rebuilt, it still seems like a war zone* . *Living in Miami, First hand, I have been through everything from a tropical storm to every category of hurricane. I can easily tolerate a tropical storm to category 3 without a blink of a eye, but a category 4 and 5 are true evil and people should never take things for granted and appreciate life as these wraphs of evil could take everything a person has material to life in general. You know this first hand and thanks to your video, people could see the facts and seriousness of these powerful systems, thank you* !

Thank you for confirming they'll only do as little as possible for us while they make themselves do better and also look charitable. It does figure cleanly. My prayers you are all well.

Glad to see my $2500 per year for military expenses does some good. The people on the island lost everything so the rich tourist area is a great place to get stuff for their families. I wonder how much the locals that work in that island make. I am guessing it is around 1 weeks stay at those resorts. Turks & Caicos gave all islanders a piece of land and made a stipulation that they have to build their dwelling and make some progress each year. Here is what I found. This is from Wikiopedia . In 2009 25000 islanders stuck." The protests in Martinique began to take on racial and class undertones due to the economic stresses.[10] The békés, descendants of French European settlers, continue to hold most of the island's industrial capacity." From what I read, 1% own 99% of the island. Sort of like the Factory towns in the US where the factory owned all the stores and housing. If you had to wait 6 days, the islanders are left homeless, and if they live or die is of little concern to the Owners of the island. They can simply import more (slaves?) Pretty messed up social order on some of those islands.

Good luck to you guys down there. We know you along with the other islanders/island are terrible shape. I wish there was more that we could do for everyone. I can't imagine the courage it must take to ration supplies, fend off looters, and wait for some kind of help. Keep us posted.

I think part of issue was Irma was still going to to us here in FL and hard for some planes or ships to get out there. 😢 I really think every celebrity should be pitching in to fix up the places they use as a playground!!!! Thank you for filming

Derek! That opening scene - wow! Did you make it back to NY or did you get stuck in Puerto Rico? Hope you did not have to go through one more storm in PR.

Really glad youre okay..sorry for the irma experience ...

God comfort you and strengthen you!

Awesome bro! Did you know your video was on 2017's year in review!?!? 😄 Someone in my comment sent me this link and I'm glad I could find the person who filmed this risky shot! 📷 I wish Google could have at least gave you credit for it! :)

Well done mate , one of the good guys .

Great video, I hope everything works out

I'm so worried for you guys did you make it to New York😱...it would really be devastating to get caught in Maria as well prayers for you and your family🙏

Looters are worse than the actual storm

good video 🌴🐎

Best wishes to all of you guys...

Very true report. Respect!

You’re a brave man.The only thing I experienced was very little.But Maria ruined my entire life.(Yes i was in Puerto Rico in 2017)

Hey DVD19-- you went to Puerto Rico which was hit bk-to-bk by Maria too! Did you fly there before that?? Then Maria has gone north

I Miss My Island SxM I Love Yall💛😔

WHERE IS THIS , WHAT NAME DE CITY, ? HOW IS TODAY OCT. 1?

Merci pour votre témoignage...

Hi, your video is interesting because I was in Oyster Pond and I am also filming every day and we pretty much went through the same things in our videos: devastation, insecurity, population getting worried and angry, looonnggg wait for help from the government, gathering around cell spot, apartment next door burning, etc. The only difference is that I stayed and my daily videos are showing the incredible improvement after almost 3 weeks. I will edit everything in a few months and send it to you. I think my target for my last video is the return of water, which should take weeks in Oyster Pond. If you ever decide to come back, let me know, I will film your return in our beautiful island ;-)

Nossa incrível e vcs ainda ficaram meu Deus! De outra vez saiam

That's the first good thing I've heard said about the red cross in decades.

Where was this filmed?

I went threw this whole storm it was unreal i was born there and lived there for ages

Same. After the 4th day is when we got water from officals. It was way too long if you ask me. Some people legit lost everything. couldn't go get water in the stores that stayed up. It was outrageous. I left with West Jet to Toronto then got a connection to NYC free.

nice video feel sorry for those people who lost their homes

I'm so profoundly sorry that you haven't gotten the help you clearly need. What is happening in the carribean on US ground is NOT OKAY.

As a Master Carpenter with 30 yrs experiance this type of construction being placed where cat 5 hurricanes are known to land is a disgrace wood frame conventional roof all rip off in this wind Concrete roofs are much better the metal commercial buildings are a joke as well. They built their own failure all windows should have built in shutters. What a completely avoidable disaster

You definitely should not open your door during a hurricane lol.. the pressure change could collapse the house or roof

God bless everyone ❤

Omg...when he said he's going to Puerto Rico I'm shaking my head like no, no, no don't go there!

Who’s watching this in 2019

Nous avons la chance avec irma si avez reste comme luis 1995 alors la. Bon travail avec la video merci.

Bless you and yours. How awful some people will add insult to injury. I'm really glad I donated to the Red Cross. Now tell me you got out of Puerto Rico!

So sorry ={ I lived through Sandy and Irene in NYC & NJ but jeesh. Nothing like this.

You getting out of P.R was a smart move

Alot of foot ball. Games and sports going on sad we are a sick nation

Hi Very impressive shooting ! Could I use some extract of your film ? I'm a french director, making a movie for a french NGO about the hurricane and how to deal with the situation after the departure of the "emergency team" such as the Red Cross. Because, in a certain way, the real problems emerge when the population is left alone, facing the reality of the hurricane : no jobs, no houses, no money. The NGO I'm working for is specialized is this particular form of help. I was in Saint-Martin at the beginning of october and I will come back I think, by the end of november, to see and film the first actions that have been set up there. Cordially yours.

Umm where do you live

We have to be prepare we should be able to live a few day's on our owned after Irma I never received no help up to this day god bless them all I am prepare already stay safe

when a cat 5 is heading for a little island you get the fuck out when they tell you to get the fuck out

I feel the same pain

My siblings stay in SXM was so much worried and desperately wanted to know about them

Please come out with a part 2 of what happened when you went to PR

Be Safe 🦋

So how do you feel now about your decision to stay in the path of the hurricane now?

❤️🙏❤️

St Martin was really lucky that the RMW of Hurricane Irma missed it. Otherwise, St Martin would have experienced gusts even stronger

Can anyone tell me where the hell is this??? Thanks

Omg!!