Kenny Chesney Helps Brothers Stranded in Hurricane Irma Get Home [WATCH]
Kenny Chesney helped play a small role in reuniting a pair of brothers with their mother following Hurricane Irma. According to CNN, the country star anonymously donated his private jet to fly the two teenagers from St. Croix, in the Virgin Islands, back to Philadelphia, Pa.
Jah-Haile and Jahbioseh Bruce were in their childhood home, located on the island of St. John, when Hurricane Irma hit.
“Five minutes later, the roof just ripped off our head,” Jah-Haile recounts. Adds Jahbioseh, “That’s the moment where I was terrified, because I felt like Irma was a spirit ... I felt like I saw the hand grab the roof, squeeze it and throw it off into the wind. It was just -- it was crazy."
The teenagers and their grandfather survived the hurricane, though they lost everything. The Bruces were taken to St. Croix on a private boat, which was sent to deliver supplies and pick up evacuees; there, a woman named Sue -- whose sons own the boat on which the Bruces arrived -- took the two in. Their plans to fly to their mother in Philadelphia were stymied by a lack of commercial flights off of the island -- until Chesney stepped in.
The Bruces were told that an anonymous donor had offered up a private jet to get them to Philadelphia. CNN did some digging and learned that the donor in question was Chesney, who had been using his plane to get supplies to the areas hit by Hurricane Irma.
Chesney owns a home on the island of St. John. The location has influenced Chesney’s music over the years, as the singer spends most of his time off the road there, and island life has been the inspiration for the culture of Chesney’s chilled-out, carefree No Shoes Nation fan club. After watching the Virgin Islands get hit by Hurricane Irma, Chesney created the Love for Love City Foundation and is working on music and selling merchandise to benefit the fund; he's also asking his fans to step up and help out in any way they can.
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