Fwd: Tomas blamed for 14 deaths in St Lucia

Ok

Win K, Charles, CEO of Aspen rose arts

http://www.redbubble.com/people/wcharles

http://www.blurb.com/user/wcharles

Begin forwarded message:

From: Mickey Theophilus <mickeytheo@yahoo.com>
Date: November 4, 2010 3:58:24 PM MDT
To: Win K Charles <wcharles622@gmail.com>
Cc: Frank Crothers <fcrothers@gmail.com>
Subject: Fw: Tomas blamed for 14 deaths in St Lucia

Dear Win,

 How are you doing?  I pray that everyone is doing well.

 

I just received an update from my Mom today - she indicated that the living conditions are very serious. The land lines are still out of service but electricity is on - thank God.  The current situation is: there is no more food in the supermarkets, there is no drinking water. Access to the capital is impossible - there are some small boats  that are moving people from different points.

 

Mom lives in a village called Choiseul which is located on the southwest coast, where the eye of the hurricane passed and totally devastated the second town of Soufriere. Apparently a few families were buried in the landslide. As regards to water, I had an overground cistern built for Mom and she is able to provide buckets of rain water to a few families in the village for bathing and laundry purposes.

 

However, they are in dire need of food and drinking water - I am considering getting two barrels - one with water and one with groceries to be sent to them for distributing to the neighboring families and the priests in the village. I cannot afford much, but I will start to organize it with my personal allowance. I have checked with a few shipping companies, the least expensive is $85 per barrell from New York to Vieux Fort, St.Lucia.

 

I am not sure in which way you and Frank could help, but I will try my best to see how the food and water could be sent as soon as possible to bring some relief to the people over there.

 

Thank you so much.

 

Best regards,

 

Mickey

 

Tel #917-668-9646

Cell #682-227-3741

 

 

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Dave Fernans <davidf@ix.netcom.com>
To: David Fernandez <davidf@ix.netcom.com>
Sent: Tue, November 2, 2010 12:12:08 PM
Subject: Tomas blamed for 14 deaths in St Lucia

Tomas blamed for 14 deaths in St Lucia

The exact cause of the deaths was not revealed by Prime Minister Stephenson King but most of them occurred in the southern town of Soufrière which is currently inaccessible. (File photo)

CASTRIES, St Lucia, Monday November 1, 2010 – At least 14 people have been confirmed dead in St Lucia as a result of Hurricane Tomas, but with people still buried and a community still cut off from the rest of the country, there are fears the death toll could rise.

The exact cause of the deaths was not revealed by Prime Minister Stephenson King but most of them occurred in the southern town of Soufrière which is currently inaccessible. 

Prime Minister King, who conducted an aerial survey of Tomas' damage to his country, said Soufrière was devastated.

"Everyone is locked in and no one can leave or get in by road or by phone so there are persons who need help but cannot be reached," he said. "It's not just a question of clearing these roads because there are sections of the network that have completely disappeared so that we are just going to have to find another way in and out of the town."

Two main bridges, D'Orange Bridge and Choc Bridge are also impassable along the Castries/Vieux Fort highway. Minister of Communication and Works, Guy Joseph, had earlier indicated that it would take about a week to restore linkages between Vieux Fort and Castries while Soufrière may be inaccessible by road for up to three weeks. 

Schools across the island remained closed and the Hewanorra International Airport in the south has still not resumed operations. However, the George Charles Airport in the capital, Castries, has opened.

Although most of the island has been affected, the south was the worst hit, with the town of Vieux Fort most severely affected, according to Prime Minister King.

The damage caused by Tomas is estimated to be more than US$100 million. 

St Lucia, like St Vincent and the Grenadines which was also badly hit by Tomas over the weekend when it was a hurricane, has asked for external assistance.

So far, the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) has indicated that its preliminary calculations indicate that St Lucia will get a payout of about US$3.2 million, St Vincent and the Grenadines US$1.1 million and Barbados – which was the first to feel Tomas – will get US$8.5 million.