My first trip to Coral Bay in St John US Virgin Islands was four days long, following Hurricane Irma and then Maria.  The devastation across the island was hard to process---houses were reduced to wreckage and cars were in places they didn't belong.  I was both in awe of the power of nature and frankly glad to have missed the main event.  Recognizing that every local resident had instead been in a front row seat, I dialed expectations way down and tried to keep in mind that many people had just experienced something wildly traumatizing. 

I felt both terrified and excited as I was dropped off at Bay House by the local property manager for the first time.  The building itself was overall in fairly good shape.  The main structure was poured concrete, and the wood framed roof was fairly substantial and miraculously had only sustained minor damage.  Most of the windows and the large sliding doors leading out to the extensive deck system were blown out and almost every piece of glass in the building was broken and distributed on just about every surface.  I found a broken broom and got to work sweeping broken glass off my bed and clearing debris from the winding, tiled staircase.