Prior Lake couple weathers Hurricane Irma in St. Thomas

Prior Lake American

About a week before Hurricane Irma hit, Portia and Michael Vogt from Prior Lake were flying to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands for a vacation to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary.

Even days before the hurricane hit land, both Portia and Michael Vogt said the local residents didn’t seem too concerned — hurricanes had barreled that way before and switched course or weakened at the last minute.

The couple went snorkeling and scuba diving and decided to book a charter boat for a few days later to visit some of the other islands. The staff started setting up the trip before the owner of the business came in and overheard them.

“She was just like, ‘No, we’re not taking anything and you’re not going to be able to book and we’re not going to take your money and we’ve got to get our boats safe,’ “ Portia Vogt said.

The boats were moved to a sheltered harbor and employees booked the couple for a three-dive package for the next week, assuring them the storm would have passed by then and the couple would be able to do the dives at that point.

Portia and Michael Vogt were becoming concerned; they began to stock up on supplies like bleach and baby wipes.

There were no shortages at the Home Depot, although there was a long line. The cashier’s scanner was broken and she was typing in the item codes by hand. Outside, a man yelled about the impending apocalypse.

“I said to Mike, ‘I feel like I’m in one of those end-of-the-world Hollywood movies,’ “ Portia Vogt said. “It was very strange.”

Their resort was right on the ocean, so they decided to check out two emergency shelters listed on government websites.

The first shelter was locked and there were no staff, no provisions. The other shelter was up a winding one-way road. The couple decided against that shelter, theorizing it would be impossible to get out once the storm hit.

“We decided to stay at the resort because there was more people and supposedly a generator but we were very scared, very concerned at this point,” Portia Vogt said.

They were unable to leave; they couldn’t find flights out.

They girded themselves for danger, and possible death. Portia Vogt, a managing partner for Twin Cities Tax, began sending her daughters and brother bank account passwords and estate instructions.

Michael Vogt, who has a doctorate in computer science and robotics, is a career research scientist for the U.S. Department of Energy and chief science officer for North American Robotics, a company that provides drone surveying services for government agencies and industries in the Midwest.

He began setting up time-lapse cameras and monitors.

“Leave good data behind, if you’re going to get wiped out,” was his philosophy.

Then they buckled down.

“The reason (Irma) got a lot of attention is, from a science perspective, it was a perfectly formed hurricane,” Michael Vogt said.

The island was expected to take a direct hit and have one or two hours of relief in the eye of the storm. However, as residents predicted, the storm did shift course at the last minute — but only enough to take away the few hours of relief. There would be no eye.

Winds picked up around 1 p.m. and Michael Vogt’s monitors did not stop recording strong winds until past 5 p.m. Trees were picked clean of their leaves and some ripped from the ground. Hundreds of boats were pulled from the ocean and broken on the beach. Cars were flipped. Homes flattened.

Portia and Michael Vogt were on the third floor of their resort, hunkered in the bathroom.

Water started flooding in from the heavy rain. Portia Vogt thought the water was from the waves and that the two floors beneath them — and all the people on them — were underwater.

However, the storm surge was still 10 feet below and the water was from drains on the deck becoming clogged with debris from the wind and filling up with rain. Nearly every unit at the resort was experiencing the same problem.

Michael and Portia Vogt decided to open the glass door to the deck, where they could see the water rising, in order to push out at least some of the foot-deep water and try to prevent the water from rising any further.

The couple wrapped couch cushions in plastic and pushed water out of the room for hours.

Finally, the storm began to break.

There was no water. There was no plumbing or sewage. There was no electricity due to an electrical fire caused by water reaching wires. But the resort did have a gas reserve and back-up generator. Some units had to be abandoned, but Portia and Michael Vogt were able to stay in their room.

“We started looking around and realizing the near 200 mph wind had stripped the island clean,” Michael Vogt said.

The island was under a curfew, with only law enforcement able to travel freely. People at the resort had very limited connection to families and friends back home as communication lines and poles had been broken or knocked over. Many in the continental United States didn’t know if they were alive.

Portia Vogt and a few others began putting together a group and going to other parts of the island to get one or two bars of cell signal. Phone calls dropped. Texts were a bit more reliable, but Facebook messenger became the most consistent way to get in contact with others.

A Facebook group was created that family and friends joined to get updates.

“The first time we got a photo up of the whole group (about 75 people), it was just such a huge relief to many people’s families because there’s just desperation going on,” Portia Vogt said.

Those staying at the resort were able to get at least one meal a day for three days from the on-site restaurant. Six employees, including the owner, chose to stay at the restaurant and help the tourists.

“They kept everybody going,” Portia Vogt said.

The resort guests and rescue groups began planning how the guests would leave the island and make it back home. FEMA representatives showed up and said the agency would come back and get all the guests, then left and never came back, Portia Vogt said.

Four days after Irma hit, a ferry came to remove guests, but couldn’t take everyone. Portia and Michael Vogt volunteered to stay, along with five other couples.

People on that ferry ended up getting moved to a Margaritaville resort elsewhere on the island with more resources. Portia and Michael Vogt moved to that resort the next day.

A rescue boat came the next day at around 6 p.m., five hours late. Again, the boat needed volunteers to stay behind. Michael and Portia Vogt and another couple volunteered to stay again. They ended up finding additional space on the rear deck and the couple was able to board, but the resort employees were left behind.

“That was heartbreaking because after all that work and these employees were the same age as my kids and we had been trying to help them too and watch out for them,” Portia Vogt said.

The pair found out most of the employees were taken to Puerto Rico by a different boat the next day, Michael Vogt said.

Michael and Portia Vogt are still in contact with some of the people on the island or others who were evacuated.

“Tourism is what makes or breaks this island,” Portia Vogt said. “Even if they recover, if the tourists don’t come back or they get a bad reputation, that’s that.”

However, Hurricane Irma was not the end of the devastation. Within two weeks, Hurricane Maria hit as well, further damaging the islands before anyone had a chance to recover.

The U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico are territories, which means the residents pay U.S. taxes but the money goes into a separate treasury for the islands, Portia Vogt said.

“That’s all the money they have and it’s not sufficient,” Portia Vogt said. “We’re hearing a lot more about Florida, we’re hearing a lot more about Texas but those people actually have dedicated dollars and their governors have a right to demand certain services because those taxpayers pay into our federal tax system. If people don’t voluntarily help, they just really don’t have the same attention due in part to how our taxation system is set up.”