Jim & I weathered ol' Dean just fine. Luckily, the eye of the storm ("only" catagory 2 when it got to the Caribbean) passed along the north edge of St. Lucia and we were in the southeast side. We did see some huge wind squalls and absolute downpours of rain. We had alternating rain, wind, and calm all day Friday. We were able to sit on the balcony at our homestay house during the calm times and watch the weather... a gorgeous view of a little valley and the Atlantic coast. We could see so much sky that we could see what weather was on the way. Friday night we had quite a lightning and thunder show. It was all an amazing display of power. I hope we never get a closer view of something that powerful. In our village, we heard that a tree fell into one house, and heard of a landslide, and we could see other trees blown over, lots of palm fronds and lots of tree branches on the ground, and banana trees bent in half, but otherwise the few villages in our corner of the island seemed to be OK. Whew!
The north side of the island (where the resorts and capitol are) might not have been so lucky. We heard that Castries was flooded and the airport was closed for a while. I hope those people are all OK up there. This is not a complete account of damage!
We were sorry to hear that the hurricane took eight lives here in the Caribbean. It looks like Dean will be bad news for Jamaica and Mexico, too. After seeing the edges of our little catagory 2 storm, I sure wouldn't want to be in the way of that catagory 5.
Our group was able to get a flight to our next island on Saturday afternoon!!! The little airport was very hectic, but a with a lot of help and support from our volunteer country office (I promised myself I would not name our organization in this blog, but you know what I'm talking about!) They really do take great care of us.
The main points as explained to us are 1) to keep us safe and 2)to get us out of the way so the people can repair and heal without worrying about our welfare. Missions accomplished.
Today some current volunteers took us on a walking tour of the city. Then we all went to a nearby black-sand beach for R&R. It was lots of fun!!
Tomorrow (Monday) starts Part II of training. Onward and upward!
Emailme
1 comment:
Hey Guys-just got the info on how to get your blog from Peg. Good to have the update, with this hurricane and all! Think of you a LOT, love you and wish you more fun and safe adventures!
C,L,J
xxxooo
Post a Comment