His mother is desperately trying to bring him back, but so far, she has been unsuccessful
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"I feel so helpless," said Carol Lloyd, of Flushing. "I'm helpless. There's nothing I can do."
Her son, 27-year-old Troy Mossman, lives on the island and was there when Irma steamrolled through the US Virgin Islands.
"As a parent, no matter how old your children are, you want to be able to be there for them," she said.
The monster storm destroyed Troy's home, and for days, Carol couldn't reach her youngest child.
"The first correspondence I have from him Friday was, 'It's me Troy,'" she said. "But that's it. But I'm like, oh my god, he's OK."
The pair kept texting, trying to figure out how Troy was going to get off St. Thomas after he told her how much he missed New York. He eventually called Carol, but he says he still doesn't have a clear plan.
"Everyone is frustrated," he said. "It's chaos. People are looting."
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Carol was able to book flights, but even those keep falling through.
"This is the third cancellation," she said. "He's getting discouraged. Like, 'Ma, I don't even know.'"
Now, he may take a ferry to nearby St John, then a boat to San Juan. There, he hopes to fly to New York. But he's reluctant.
"I pack all of my stuff, take ferry to St. John and then they say you can't get on," he said. "We'll be stuck again."
Carol is at her wits end, and she feels US officials are giving tourists priority treatment and aren't doing enough for locals. She worries what will happen to her son.
"The cruise ships should be lining up, 'We'll make sure you get to the mainland,'" she said. "They're not doing that, and it's a problem for me."