Life, for most Jamaicans living on the Turks and Caicos Islands, is slowly getting back to normal after the island was ravaged by Hurricane Ike earlier this month.

Many took advantage of the discounted fares to Jamaica and came home to escape the storm. They returned, however, to see most of the island devastated and without power. Joleen Grant, a young Jamaican, who moved to the island recently to work with a local newspaper, told THE STAR that she left the island before the hurricane made landfall, but had difficulties returning.

Worrying about their jobs

"I left on [airline], but I didn't know when the return flight was. A lot of people paid for return trips but they couldn't get any infor-mation, so they had to go else-where and then take a flight to Turks and Caicos. A lot of people were stranded in Jamaica and they were worrying about their jobs and those things," Grant explained.

Grant left Turks and Caicos on September 5, a day before the hurricane, but returned a week later than scheduled. She how-ever told THE STAR that when she returned to the island of Providenciales, power, phone and water had already been restored.

Still without power

Gareth Brown, a Jamaican living on Grand Turk, was not so fortunate. When he spoke to THE STAR on Wednesday, almost three weeks after the disaster, he was still without power. He said the local authorities informed them that power would not be returned for another three to four weeks. In fact, he had to leave his home and get his phone charged, to speak with THE STAR.

Avoid the storm

Like Grant, he also returned to Jamaica to avoid the storm. He spent two weeks here. He told THE STAR that many houses lost roofs and the local hospital was badly damaged.

"Ninety per cent of the light poles were down but they started putting them back up now. They brought up workers from some other islands to help out but a lot of people are without power."

There were no recorded fata-lities on the island, however, and he said there was not much flooding. Hurricane Ike slammed into the island on September 6 as a Category Four hurricane. This was after the island was hit with heavy rains from Tropical Storm Hanna.