Chabad Emissaries In Caribbean ‘Saved’ By Riding Out Hurricane Irma In Jewish Ritual Bath

TEL AVIV – Chabad emissaries on the tiny Caribbean island of St. Martin, which was almost entirely destroyed by Hurricane Irma on Wednesday, say their lives were saved by hiding out in the mikvah, or Jewish ritual bath.

“The winds were absolutely terrifying,” Rabbi Moishe Chanowitz told Chabad.org. “You could hear it; you feel the pressure in your ears. I thought the windows would explode at any moment.”

“The moment we got our last child into the mikvah area,” the rabbi said, “the front door of the Chabad House flew clean off. It was terrifying.”

He added that while the area surrounding the ritual bath has no windows, it does have a door, which the Chanowitzes blocked by dragging a commercial freezer in front of it.

“We have hurricane-proof doors and windows; it’s not like we weren’t prepared,” he said. “But this was off the charts. The mikvah saved us.”

The category 5 storm – with winds of 180 mph – killed at least 9 people and decimated 95 percent of the island.

The island, which is part-Dutch and part-French, has no electricity, no drinkable water and no gasoline. The airport has also been shut down but U.S. military aircraft have been rescuing American nationals. Some 5,000 Americans are still trapped on the island.

“I’m looking out onto flipped cars and darkness,” Chanowitz said when he emerged from the mikveh to survey the storm’s aftermath. “The damage is unimaginable. But we’re going to rebuild.”