A Crown Heights church is organizing relief efforts for hurricane victims in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

"The basic things that we take here for granted, they don't even have," says Ava Jolley, a member of the First Baptist Church, which is behind the drive.

Two Category 5 hurricanes pummeled the area just weeks apart, tearing off rooftops, destroying infrastructure and causing widespread flooding.

The church has been collecting donations since Hurricane Irma struck, but the Rev. Gilford Monrose, a St. Croix native, says charitable people need to do more.

"We think the Islands have been overlooked," he says.

Dr. Allen Martin, another native of the Virgin Islands, is the pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Brooklyn. A branch of that church was completely wrecked in St. Thomas, he says.

"The storm actually destroyed the front part of the structure, lifted the roof, demolished the alter," he says.

Next week, the church plans to send a delegation to the Virgin Islands to see what kind of help people need most.