Hurricanes Irma and Maria devastated islands in the Caribbean last September. Six months later, how are they recovering? To find out, writers for Travel spent time in Vieques, St. Martin, St. John (below), Dominica and San Juan, P.R.

The ruins of a windmill that crushed stalks of cane in the 19th century was off-limits, a red sign warning of its “unsafe condition.” So were many of the other spots of interest along the trail of the Annaberg Sugar Plantation in St. John in the United States Virgin Islands after Hurricanes Irma and Maria swept through the Caribbean six months ago.

St. John suffered major damage to its hotel and housing stock, charter boat business, beach facilities and the national parkland that extends over about 60 percent of the island. It lost its clinic and its only public school buildings.

Now visitors are trying to look past uprooted trees and roofless buildings to focus on the natural beauty that has been St. John’s main draw. At the Annaberg ruins in the Virgin Islands National Park, one sight remained untouched: the ocean view with a cluster of British Virgin Islands in the distance, looking as majestic as an oil painting.