“We Don’t Know How Much More We Can Take”: Hurricane Irma Flattens Churches Across the Caribbean

• At least four churches were flattened in Antigua and Barbuda
• About a dozen were destroyed on St Martin by the Category 5 storm
• In the British Virgin Islands, shelters in churches lost their roofs
• A regional evangelical leader feared another storm could follow

When Hurricane Irma tore through the northern Caribbean in September 2017, church buildings were among the casualties. Christianity Today reported that at least four churches in Antigua and Barbuda were flattened and that around a dozen were destroyed on St Martin by the Category 5 hurricane. Across the region the storm killed 23 people.

The damage fell hardest on islands where Christians make up 75 per cent or more of the population and where Pentecostal and Full Gospel congregations are the largest Protestant groups. In the British Virgin Islands, some churches where residents had gone for shelter had their roofs blown off, the magazine reported, underlining how often a church building doubles as a community’s refuge in a storm.

Emerson Boyce, secretary general of the Evangelical Association of the Caribbean, based in Trinidad and Tobago, was already worried about the next system, Hurricane Jose, which was tracking behind Irma. “We don’t know how much more we can take,” he said. Even so, he struck a note of gratitude: “I want to thank God. Despite all that’s happening globally, there is still a Christian presence” in the Caribbean, he said.

International relief groups moved in quickly. Samaritan’s Purse delivered emergency supplies on St Martin, an island of 74,000 people, and said it was helping 4,000 families there. “We believe God has opened a unique door on St. Martin, and we want to show the compassion of Jesus Christ,” the organisation said. The group also evacuated Jonathan Falwell, pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church, from the island.

Jamaica was spared Irma’s worst, but later seasons, from Beryl in 2024 to Melissa in 2025, brought the island its own damaged churches. The lesson for Jamaican churches is practical: a building that is expected to shelter a community must itself be insured, maintained and built to withstand the wind. For diaspora congregations that support churches back home, funding a sound roof before the season may do more good than an appeal after it.

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