Stricken Dominica getting help from Delaware relief mission

Last updated: October 4, 2017 at 07:45 am

The hairs on Andrea Jones' arms still stand up when she talks about her late-in-life calling to bring healing and relief to people across the world.

"It's something I can't really put into words," Jones said.

"It's truly a calling that God has led me to, and it's just a fire that burns within me."

This week that vocation takes her to Dominica, a Caribbean island more than 1,800 miles from Delaware that was savaged by Hurricane Maria when it was a category five storm packing 160mph winds. Virtually every structure on the island was damaged. Agriculture was destroyed, and the lush tropical trees were stripped of leaves. Nearly 30 have died and more than 50 are missing.

The tiny sovereign nation is only 270 square miles and could fit nearly seven times into the state of Delaware.

On Monday evening, members of the Delaware Medical Relief Team — which has helped people following natural disasters around the world, including in Haiti and Nepal — worked out of a storage unit in Newark, packing donated items for the first phase of assistance.

---

A fundraising effort – DominiCARElief – organised by Dominica’s high commission in London is underway. More information can be found and donations can be made at www.dominicarelief.org.

---

There were bikes, wheelchairs, crutches, clothes, canned goods, snacks, energy bars, toiletries, water, a gas generator, shoes and medicine. Volunteers and veterans like Jones sorted and repacked items as the trip inches closer and the plans finalised around them.

The team will carry with it medicines, bandages, tarps and other items useful in establishing an emergency hospital and field kitchen. At least 10 members of the team are expected to reach the island Wednesday afternoon, with relief and reinforcement following in the weeks ahead.

Disaster experience

Some of those headed to Dominica didn't know what to expect from their soon-to-be-patients, who have suffered since Hurricane Maria hit 18 September.

"At this point, we're all prepared to be in the elements," Jones said. Tents and sleeping bags also are being packed.

The Delaware Medical Relief Team last deployed to a disaster zone in May 2015, responding to a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that killed more than 6,000 people and injured nearly 14,000 in the Himalayan nation of Nepal.

Five years earlier, the team sent dozens of volunteers to Haiti. A quake had killed more than 200,000 people and shook the nation's infrastructure to the ground.

A News Journal team accompanied the teams to Haiti and Nepal and will travel with the group on the first leg of this effort, said Executive Editor David Ledford.

At the helm of the Delaware Medical Relief Team is Dr Reynold Agard, an internal medicine doctor from Newark who also led the group on medical missions to Kenya, India and other Caribbean islands.

"It's a passion we have, to put ourselves and our families in the same position these folks are going through," Agard said. "When you have a passion for people, there's no place too high, too far, too wide. It brings out the best in us."

Communities destroyed

The largest of the Windward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, Dominica normally is a volcanic paradise of rich rainforests and active coastlines. Today, it is a disaster zone from shore to shore.

"We have chosen Dominica because it's an island by itself," said Agard, who's been in touch regularly with the prime minister. "They have lost 90 to 95% of their housing."

The storm was the strongest on record to hit Dominica. Winds blew apart houses island-wide and tore up the banana trees and sugar cane that are mainstays of the economy.

Likewise ravaged were its tourism-driving rainforests, one of which, Morne Trois Pitons National Park, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so designated for the richness of its biodiversity.

"The damage is extensive," Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit told CNN days after the disaster.

"It is really devastating in many communities. Our agriculture sector is 100% destroyed. Our tourism is, I would say, about 95% destroyed."

On 29 September, the United Nations launched the Hurricane Maria Flash Appeal for Dominica, asking for US$31.1 million to reach 65,000 people over the next three months.

That money would be aimed at addressing a lack of fresh water and electricity, as well as road damage and other after-effects.

Hurricane David in 1979 was the last category five storm to batter the island, blowing its winds at 150mph and killing 56. It destroyed most of the nation's homes and crops.

Two years ago, Tropical Storm Erika dumped 10 inches of rain on the island in only a few hours, triggering flooding and landslides that flattened villages.