RFA Mounts Bay’s ‘Herculean efforts’ to help British Virgin Islanders

Power and fresh water is now flowing to hundreds of British Virgin islanders thanks to the ‘herculean’ efforts of RFA Mounts Bay.

Continuing her support for the region, which began last Thursday, yesterday personnel from the ship helped people on four different islands – Jost van Dyke, Tortola, Virgin Gorda and Anegada.

On Virgin Gorda, the third largest island in the chain and home to 4,000 people, RFA engineers worked for four hours in stifling heat to get a power station running again.

It was key not only to providing electricity to homes in the Tetor Bay district of the island, but also to the desalination plant – which turns sea water into fresh water for locals.

In Road Town, Mounts Bay’s Mexeflote powered raft delivered masses of DIY stores – 75 sheets of plywood, 75 sheet of corrugated iron, 100 planks of timber, a couple of wheelbarrows and an assortment of hand tools.

The ship’s Wildcat helicopter spent ten hours in Caribbean skies either delivering supplies – fresh water especially – or transporting personnel ashore.

This including flying in emergency supplies, including three tonnes of bottled water and a half a tonne of food, to the residents Jost van Dyke, an island with a population of 300. The supplies will aid inhabitants as they begin to restore essential supplies.