HENRICO COUNTY, Va. – A Henrico woman who was stranded in the Caribbean after Hurricane Irma struck is back safe in the United States.
Brooke Thompson, a 23-year-old graduate of Deep Run High School and Randolph Macon College, was stuck on St. Maarten after she said she wasn’t able to evacuate the island because she was not allowed to bring her puppy with her to safety.
Brooke Thompson and her puppy Arthur are safe in Chicago.
Thompson is in her first year of med school at American University of the Caribbean.
When the storm hit, she and about 500 students took shelter at the school.
She told her parents officials said pets couldn’t go on the military planes, so Thompson and her puppy Arthur, as well as dozens of other students with their pets, decided not to evacuate.
Brooke Thompson with her pet
Her mother, Julie McGuaghey, updated her daughter’s situation this week and said Thompson was able to get on a chartered flight Monday, nearly a week after the Hurricane hit. Thompson and her puppy are now staying in a hotel in Chicago, where AUC has a campus.
