A hurricane force storm on the night of 18th/19th July 2019 caused significant damage on Tristan da Cunha. This tiny island with a population of just 250 people is situated in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean 0ver 1500 miles (2430 km) from nearest settlement, which makes it the world's remotest community.

Thankfully, no one was injured by the storm, and there was little damage to private homes. However, most public buildings were devastated, including the school, which had much of its roof ripped off, with the interior, books and equipment suffering wind and water damage.

The picture above of the school gives an idea of the extensive damage it suffered. Further photos of the damage to the school can be seen at: https://tristandc.com/news-2019-08-01-schoolstormupdate.php

More general pictures of the storm damage on Tristan and the latest news updates can be found at: https://tristandc.com/storm-2019-07.php

The Tristan da Cunha Association has launched an Emergeny Fund to help with the restoration effort. The JustGiving part of the appeal will specifically go towards getting education on the island back to normal, under the auspices of the Education Trust Fund (which enables UK tax payers to supplement their donations with Gift Aid). The Fund is making grants via the Tristan Government to pay for refurbishment of St Mary's School, which will be a major expense. It gave its first instalment to St Marys School to help with restoration in October 2019.

When this campaign was started, the extent of the damage was still being assessed, and we set a high initial target for the Emergency Fund. Thankfully, the UK Government has provided funding for most essential repairs and restoration, and the need for additional relief has therefore been very much reduced. The Emergency Fund has accordingly revised the target for its JustGiving campaign down to £10,000.

The remoteness of the island makes relief work very difficult to organise. There is no airport, and ships take a week to travel there from Cape Town, South Africa. The first ship carrying men and materials did not arrive until the 17th August. Repairs are expected to take many months.