Hurricane Maria destroyed or badly damaged 28 of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s 34 congregations in Dominica, along with four schools. Six months later, with thousands of families displaced, recovery on the island was still a challenge.

Portsmouth Catholic Church in Dominica, destroyed by a 2004 earthquake, was rebuilt for more than $2 million from church, government, bank and parish funds and dedicated in 2017, with the priest declaring it debt-free.

Roseau’s Our Lady of Fair Haven Cathedral in Dominica received a 60-tonne, UK-made hurricane-resistant steel roof in 2017, part of an EC$12.4 million restoration that took 15 years of preparation and fundraising.

Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said he made no apologies for a $500,000 government gift to the Roseau Catholic Cathedral restoration, telling critics it was the Lord who gave the money, as an evangelical pastor called the idea misguided.