ELKINS -- Jillayne Tompkins is thankful her family safely escaped the floodwater in Puerto Rico, but struggles with survivor's guilt and looks for ways to give back.
Hurricane Maria slammed the island Sept. 20, bringing torrential rainfall and massive flooding. Tompkins fought back a panic attack that night as she watched the water creep into her neighborhood, which hadn't flooded in decades, she said.
Hurricane season wraps up
Thursday was the last day of hurricane season with 17 named storms, 10 of which became hurricanes.
The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season will be remembered for a deadly trio of storms — Harvey, Irma and Maria — that ravaged Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and numerous other islands.
The storms killed at least 441 people and did about $369 billion in damage. This season is one of only six years on record to include multiple Category 5 hurricanes. It’s only the second season to include two hurricanes making landfall at that intensity.
Maria caused widespread destruction in Puerto Rico on Sept 20, leaving much of the island without power. It was the 10th most intense Atlantic storm by barometric pressure.
The Atlantic’s hurricane season begins June 1 each year.
Source: The Associated Press
"We knew we were an island on an island. We knew it was too late to leave. We'd just have to prepare for the worst," Tompkins said.
The floodwater stopped just short of the family's home, but Tompkins knew she couldn't provide proper care for her kids and pets in the environment Maria left behind.
Tompkins and her children -- ages 12, 8, 7, 5 and 1 -- fled the island days after the hurricane hit and have been staying at her mother-in-law's four-bedroom home in Elkins. Tompkins' husband, Conrad, works for the federal government and stayed in Puerto Rico.
Much of the island remains without power and thousands are still homeless. Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosello said last month he's seeking $94.4 billion from Congress to help with the recovery effort, a request that's pending.
Jillayne and Conrad Tompkins, both Arkansas natives, moved their family to the island in late 2014. They had been planning before the storm to move to Fayetteville within the next year. Maria's direct hit created an urgency to leave. Tompkins, her children and two dogs caught a plane three days after the hurricane, arranged by her husband's employer.
They brought what they could -- a few changes of clothes, a car seat, blankets, snacks, dog food, diapers, some electronic devices for the kids. The dogs, Patches and Molly, shared a large cage.
Tompkins is happy to have a place to stay -- what she called a "cushy" environment compared to what other evacuees have -- but they are technically homeless. That's weird, she said.
"It changes who you are after you've gone through something like this. It changes you forever. It just makes you not sweat the small stuff anymore. And all the stuff you have in your life just becomes -- stuff," Tompkins said.
Giving back
Tompkins said she deeply misses Puerto Rico and its people and wants to help.
She and two other evacuees bought and shipped eight chain saws with donated money within hours of arriving in the United States. Their husbands who stayed behind needed the equipment to help rescue people and to clear roads, she said.
She's also been heavily involved with an all-volunteer group called Wings of Hope for Puerto Rico, which formed in response to the hurricane. Mark Sawyer, a co-founder of the group, said he knew the Tompkins family from church. He'd observed the way Tompkins jumped to the aid of those affected by Hurricane Irma, which blew through the Caribbean in early September.
"She had stepped up and really just went out of her way more than anyone else I could see, and I thought, I need her help here," Sawyer said, speaking on the phone last week from Puerto Rico's east coast.
One of the group's initiatives was arranging air transportation off the island for those who had severe medical issues.
"Jillayne was instrumental in getting 70 people off the island," Sawyer said. "We do know examples of people whose lives have been saved because of her."
Wings of Hope volunteers also have been busy delivering food and water to Puerto Ricans and putting roofs on houses. One of its projects is raising money for "hope bags" filled with toys and treats for 1,200 orphans on the island, Sawyer said.
Tompkins is active on Facebook, where she has posted numerous links to stories about Puerto Rico. She expressed disappointment in how Puerto Rico's hurricane-related woes seem already to have faded from most Americans' minds. Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, a fact she said many people don't realize.
"I feel like Puerto Ricans have been forgotten," she said. "They're kind of the redheaded stepchild of the United States."
She finds she's increasingly annoyed when she overhears people talking about trivial things. She's also determined not to squander the experience she's been through as an evacuee from a place she grew to love.
"I want it to be preparation for something else. I want to learn. I want to learn from it and grow," she said.
A big change
The entire Tompkins family is having to grow and adjust. Tompkins said her husband came to Arkansas for two weeks last month and she hopes he'll be back for Christmas. The plan is the whole family will visit Puerto Rico for a month after the holidays, mainly for what Tompkins called "closure" for her kids.
The first two weeks in Arkansas were rough, especially for the oldest child, 12-year-old Ella, she said.
"A lot of yelling. Just being mad," Tompkins said of Ella's behavior. "She was mad about everything."
Ella said she's still working through her emotions. She misses her friends and the warmth of Puerto Rico.
"After being there for three years, your body kind of gets used to the warmth," she said. "So I've been wearing coats pretty much all day, still trying to warm up and get used to the cold."
Tompkins enrolled her three school-age children in the Elkins School District.
"Elkins has been really good. They really stepped up. They had my kids' school supplies already, so I didn't have to go shopping for them," she said.
Ella, a sixth-grader at Elkins Middle School, said the most difficult part of the transition has been catching up in school. She also acknowledged it feels "kind of weird" to be the girl who just transferred from an island.
"I've had a lot of people ask me questions, including teachers," Ella said.
More than 140,000 Puerto Ricans have left since Hurricane Maria hit the island. Some estimate 14,000 public school students are part of the exodus, according to a report last month from The Associated Press.
NW News on 12/03/2017