Friday, November 09, 2007

"Tropical Storm" Noel


I know, I have been way behind with my blog. There is a lot to fill you in on for the months of September and October, including my wonderful trip home, but first I must tell you what has been going on in this country over the past two weeks.

The Dominican Republic has just experienced the worst natural disaster it has seen in years. You may have seen some of it on the news, I’m not sure, but let me share with you what happened from an insiders point of view.

Labeled Hurricane Noel when it reached the United States, it was still only a tropical storm as it slowly churned its way over this country. It was hardly windy, with a moderately heavy rain at best. What it did was bring water - lots and lots of water. It caught everyone by surprise. The water came down slowly and steadily for a couple of days until the ground had soaked in all it could and the water began to rise. Rivers overflowed, bridges fell, landslides covered the roads, and acres of flat rice fields were submersed. The level of the water rose, barging into people’s homes and driving the people away. Those who did not want to leave when they were warned by relief agencies could later be found on their roof or in a tree, praying for a boat or helicopter to come by and bring them to safety.

(People look on as water fills the streets and houses:)
Refugees sat in schools and safe houses throughout the country with nothing but their lives. Homes were damaged, crops destroyed, and some lives were lost. The rains eventually stopped, but the water stayed for some time. Homes could be seen sitting in the water, its level halfway up the house, most things inside destroyed.

Here some refugees are served food at a local school near my town that served as a shelter:
The disaster affected the entire country. The areas hit hardest with water levels as I described were the south and my region in the northeast. Other parts were affected differently; mountainous areas saw a lot of mudslides, and many bridges were down, making access to certain parts of the country impossible for a few days.

I arrived from my trip to the states on a Monday afternoon, just when they realized that this was an emergency. From the airport, I headed down the coastal highway to the center of Santo Domingo. Huge waves were crashing into the shore, throwing water over the highway and at times covering it completely. The Peace Corps called a “Standfast” and immediately began contacting Volunteers to make sure they were OK and ordering them to stay put. Volunteers were not allowed to leave from wherever they were at that moment until further notice. Travel was dangerous and no one was sure as to the extent of the damage. Having arrived in the capital, I stayed, and wasn’t cleared to go home to my site until that Friday.

We heard bits and pieces of news during that time, but it wasn’t until that Thursday that I realized the seriousness of what had happened. The Peace Corps informed us that the country had declared a national disaster. Foreign aid was called for and relief agencies got to work. I found this very interesting - the Peace Corps is the only international organization with Volunteers located in every part of the country. We know first hand what the situation is like in rural parts of the country better than any other organization. Certain agencies which offer assistance are based in the capital or another large city, and basically search blindly for the areas they assume need help. The Peace Corps has an advantage by working and living in these communities, so the government called upon us to report back to them what the real situation was where we live. I must admit I felt proud to be given this responsibility, and hopeful that my connection would be able to help those who need it in my community.

Don’t worry, my town was FINE. My town is the largest of many small towns that make up a district. Many of these smaller towns (or neighborhoods, really) were hit hard. I live in an area that produces a lot of rice. If you’ve ever seen a rice field, they are flat. Rice needs a lot of water to grow, so this land (at sea level, mind you) usually has water up to ground level. In many areas in my district, excess water doesn’t have any place to go (no hills, not enough rivers), so the land just filled with water. Of course, farmers often live near the fields where they work, so many houses were left underwater and people were evacuated.

I’m getting long-winded. Here are some photos, all from areas near my town. I don´t have a lot of information on the situation in the south, but I know its worse:

Here is a street still one week after the storm hit:
This woman´s house was moved right off the foundation:
Driving through flooded streets with church Volunteers:
This man returned to his house this day to find it filled with mud and debris. You can see from the lines on the house how high the water was:
Soaked mattresses were left out to dry:
Delivering donations to one of the affected areas. I went with people from the Catholic Church this day to see some of the damage:


The woman below shows the level that the water was up to at her house:

What the people need now are mattresses (imagine a mattress soaked through with water - you can’t use that again!), mosquito nets (lots of standing water breeds lots of mosquitoes!), water, and food. The really scary part is knowing how difficult the next few months will be. All of the crops have been destroyed, and many farm animals have died. We are going to be seeing a major food shortage here, and already are. Food prices will go way up because things will be imported, and many poor will have a difficult time paying to feed their families. Until we can get the crops growing and producing again, times will be tough. But they will survive, they have before.

The effort of people in my area to help those affected by the storm was a beautiful thing. People went on TV asking for donations of anything they could spare to help those who had lost everything - a fork, a candle, whatever. Donations came pouring in. All of those clothes that I brought here to sell to raise money I immediately put in a big bag and donated to the affected people. Those who gave me clothing donations can feel good that your clothes went to a very important cause! The Catholic Church in my town has been amazing, putting donations together every day and bringing them directly to the different neighborhoods that need help. Other local organizations are helping too, and the Civil Defense of the Dominican government. (Photo at right is of donations that came into the Civil Defense)

Millions if not billions of dollars came in to the Dominican government from many generous countries, including the United States, Taiwan, Venzuela, etc. Have the people seen it yet? No. This will be the interesting part, to see how much of that money the people will actually see. I shouldn’t doubt a fair distribution of the funds, but from what people here tell me about things like this happening in the past, the money rarely makes it to the people who really need it. We will see.

Meanwhile, the people are getting on with their lives. It was very impressive to see the attitude of the people as they returned to their damaged homes. They took a look, picked up the mop, and got to work. Certain things will take time and money to replace, such as electric equipment (refrigerators, washing machines), beds and mattresses, etc. But in general they’ve still got their house, so they will just start over again with what they’ve got and go from there.

I don’t know if there is anything you can do to help. If there is and you are interested, I will let you know.

*The first three photos were taken by a Korean Volunteer I met this past week. She came on to help with the Civil Defence just at the right time. She's in a program similar to Peace Corps out of Korea called KOICA, and will be here for the next two years. (Below: flooded rice fields)