Building a Culture of Preparedness: 2025 Highlights and 2026 Priorities

By Meaghan Enright


In 2025 the US Virgin Islands were blessed with a quiet Atlantic Hurricane Season, though it was not without some close calls. Category 5 Erin brushed the territory in August, and in October we saw our Caribbean neighbors in Jamaica devastated by Category 5 Melissa. These events underscore the importance of preparedness in our communities, not just for hurricanes but for disasters and crises of all kinds. Love City Strong is committed to serving the community of St John in the areas of disaster preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation, with an emphasis on community resilience. In today’s post, we will briefly recap our work in 2025, and take a look forward at our priorities in 2026. 

In 2025, we made progress across all the pillars of our mission. 

Disaster Preparedness + Response

  • 2025 reinforced the need for community-led preparedness and response capacity as federal emergency management continued to evolve.
  • LCS maintains emergency commodities, trains and develops surge capacity with our public and private sector partners, and conducts year round community outreach – these pillars form the backbone of our readiness work.

Recovery + Mitigation : Disaster Housing Recovery

  • We continued our housing recovery work through the FEMA HMGP Wind Retrofit Program and our Resilient Housing Initiative, finishing one complete rebuild and three smaller accessibility projects. 

Recovery + Mitigation : Resilient Energy Initiative

  • In partnership with the Caribbean Solar Company, thanks to a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies, we installed 15 solar and battery back up systems on low- and middle-income homes that have been repaired through our disaster housing recovery programs. 
  • The Resilient Energy Initiative addresses energy equity head-on, and these families now have reliable power during outages, meaningful relief from high electricity bills, and the capacity to help support their neighbors during disasters.

While we were lucky to avoid a major impact in 2025, community readiness is more important than ever. With increasingly intense impacts possible, and federal resources and programming evolving to emphasize local, state, and territory resilience, Love City Strong’s goal in 2026 is to continue developing our foundational programs while enhancing our partnerships, community engagement, and operational capacity.  

As we move into the new year, our priorities include: 

Preparedness + Response 

  • Increase our predictable surge capacity by updating our Standby Go Team programming and building a volunteer framework.
  • Launch a Community Resilience Mapping Initiative to help increase awareness of and access to resources in a disaster.
  • Host workshops on diverse topics including: emergency food + water purification, “Make a Plan,” small business preparedness, boaters’ preparedness, and more.
  • Host our regular annual events: the Hurricane Prep Fair, the Prep Fete, and our Community Fun Day, plus weekly LCS Connect pop-ups during hurricane season. 

Recovery + mitigation (staying the course on hardest gaps)

  • Continue disaster housing recovery through the FEMA HMGP Wind Retrofit Program and Resilient Housing Initiative
  • Complete installation on 15 more Resilient Energy Initiative installations for LMI households and continue fundraising to expand the program. 

Case management (blue skies + disaster-ready)

  • Formalize Disaster Case Management guidelines and standard operating procedures in advance of future impacts.
  • Build a Bridging Access Initiative and a Community Resource Hub so residents can navigate services more easily.

If you’re interested in supporting Love City Strong’s critical preparedness efforts on St John, please consider becoming a monthly donor! A monthly gift of just $10 can provide a Preparedness Kit to a household in need of assistance. 

As we step into 2026, Love City Strong is staying focused on actionable steps that move the needle for St. John: consistent, practical preparedness; stronger local surge capacity; and long-term recovery work that reduces risk for the households most impacted by disasters. We are grateful to the residents who show up and engage in the work of readiness with us, and to the donors, partners, and volunteers who make this hyper-local model possible. Every kit distributed, home strengthened, installation completed, workshop hosted, and plan updated builds a stronger foundation for the next storm and the years beyond. Thank you for being part of this work, and for helping ensure St. John is prepared, supported, and never left behind.