Wilma's Aftermath

Thanks everyone who has been praying. Wilma was a terrible storm. And Alpha didn't help. Here in Bohoc, we got off fairly easily. We got several days of rain (no wind) from Wilma before she became a hurricane. I don't know what the totals were, but it was several inches over the several days.

Then, last Sunday, here came Tropical Storm Alpha. We got 3 inches of rain (again, no wind) from Alpha. We had no ill effects here at HAFF. But Dr Jerry got stuck in the mud on the way home from church south of the Bohoc river and had to wait a while for the river to go down before he could cross it. That is a first in my 20 years in Haiti! And National Route 3 was a river in front of the HAFF campus. We had all kinds of mini lakes all over the place.

But the people who live or garden near the larger rivers had a harder time. I have heard that some houses were damaged by flood waters. And I guess everytime the rivers are high and sweeping things away, there are people down stream who make hay while the rain falls, salvaging things from the rivers. One of our night guards was by the Bouyaha river (flows by St Raphael, north of Pignon, and then flows west of HAFF) with some of the salvagers and saw one get swept away by the waters. He was trying to salvage a board and it got caught between his legs and he couldn't get untangled. The other salvagers and the spectators were caring for another man who had been exhausted by his attempts to salvage some charcoal, and they did not see the man with the board until it was too late to help him. A young man was swept away by the Gouap river that flows by Pignon. He was "playing" in the high waters of the river and was swept away. Someone else jumped in to help him and that person was swept away too. They only found one of those bodies.

Late Sunday and early Monday, Wilma went and hammered Florida. I have finally heard from most of my Florida family and friends. My Aunt in Naples was without electricity for 3 days, but had running water, food and drink, thankfully. My Aunt in Leesburg had no trouble. My cousin in Fort Lauderdale I don't know about yet, nor my cousin in Lake Worth. I did, however hear from the folks at MFI today. Here is a copy of the e-mail they sent us from Lake Worth today.
"Hurricane Wilma crossed right over West Palm Beach on Monday and was much stronger than we all expected. We arrived safely back in Palm Beach with the planes Tuesday afternoon. The staff all went home to no electricity, damaged roofs and fences. We started putting the office and computers back together yesterday. The office is running on generator power and we have just now been able to access the internet for e-mails. The south side of Palm Beach International Airport still has no power and US Customs and Immigration will be closed until the power is restored. UPS has not officially resumed deliveries yet, (although we did receive a couple of packages yesterday). Gas is hard to find and when a station has gas you'll wait in line for hours. We hope to be able to fly next Tuesday to Cap Haitien, Port-au-Prince and Santiago (in the Dominican Republic). We will keep you posted. Please keep all of us Floridians in your prayers."

Our board members and friends in Fort Myers and Cape Coral are fine. Their yards are a mess and some have roof damage. But the power was restored quickly for some and things were not as bad a Charlie last year. Tim and the interns had their Wednesday flight canceled -- Miami airport was closed! But they are in Port-au-Prince now and, Lord willing, will be flying tomorrow afternoon from Port to JFK to Miami and then renting a car and driving to North Fort Myers. Keep them in your prayers. They have only an hour at JFK to get their luggage, go through immigration and customs and get to the Miami flight.