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Hurricane-relief trip report, part 1
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We're back! It was a busy and productive trip. Here's a trip report with some pictures.
(for background see my earlier post Ivan hurricane relief trip - wish us luck )
We loaded our 4 large boxes of hurricane-relief supplies - flashlights, batteries, nails and other hardware, tarps, canned food, water - and headed for the airport in Boston early Saturday morning. Our scheduled flight was cancelled and we were re-booked on a US Air flight to MoBay. The first sign that things were not normal was the emptiness of the flight. Even with the combined people from the two flights, the plane - an Airbus designed to hold 200 - had 7 passengers on it. I guess tourists were cancelling and the all-inclusives were rebooking their customers to non-hurricane-ravaged islands.
Amazingly we had no hassles at Logan airport. The airline didn't charge us for our overweight luggage, and the security folks did not make us open the boxes. We got to MoBay with everything intact.
The next sign that things were not normal was MoBay airport. I have never seen it so empty. We walked right up to the immigration folks with no queue. Surprisingly they gave us more hassles there over our boxes than we got at the Boston end. They made us open each one and asked us to put a value on each item. Sheesh - you'd think they'd waive the duties on hurricane-relief supplies! We finally got through without paying duty by rewriting the whole customs declaration in my wife's name, since with her Jamaican passport she is allowed to bring in up to $500 dollars worth of goods. We circled the whole list, wrote $499 in the value column next to the lot, and smacked it down and said "now let us in". So he did.
MoBay was not too badly hit, and apart from the scarcity of tourists, the town was almost back to normal. There was some damage to properties immediately on the water (e.g. Margueritaville) but otherwise the buildings were OK. Power was up. We stopped at a supermarket and bought more food and water to bring to the harder-hit countryside.
We rented a SUV and started driving on the coastal road toward Negril. The towns on the northwest coast - Sandy Bay, Lucea, Green Island - also looked to be in decent shape after the storm. We stopped in Lucea for some lunch. A vendor wanted to sell us something - "please buy something, mi need money for nails to rebuild mi house". We don't want anything, we replied, but we can give you some nails. And to his surprise we opened one of our boxes and gave him some nails! Our first bit of relief aid handed out.
We turned inland at Green Island and started driving uphill toward Cauldwell where our friends live. Here in these impoverished villages in the countryside, the destructive power of Ivan started to become apparent. Everywhere there were downed trees and downed power lines. The road was a mess. The power was out, and from the looks of the mashed-up power lines strewn over the roads, it will still be a while before it comes back. Without power, water-pumping stations were out, so people were walking long distances carrying pails of drinking water. Here's a couple of pics:
Downed power lines strewn along the road:
A felled tree carrying down power lines with it:
We arrived at our friends' house in Cauldwell and found them safe and uninjured, but suffering from roof damage and the loss of many things (refrigerator, TV, schoolbooks) due to water damage. It was so good to see them safe and alive! The pickneys seemed still shaken up by the storm, but when asked "how are you?" the 12-year-old replied "happy, because we're alive". You have to love the Jamaican spirit! Back home I know Americans who have everything but are depressed, and here there were people who have nothing but are happy.
We dropped off a bunch of our supplies and some cash with our friends, picked up a list of damaged schoolbooks and promised to try to replace them, and proceeded onward. We gave away much of the rest of our goods (except for things set aside for my wife's family) to people in that area of Hanover who were also in need. Then we drove into Negril.
Negril was also hard-hit, but was further on the path to recovery than the rural inland areas. I guess getting the tourist business back in operation is a priority. Power was just starting to come back on as we arrived, a week after the hurricane, though there were still many establishments without power, and many were still closed. I heard that the Jungle had reopened the night before on generator power: I guess for the "working girls" and the handful of tourists there who were their prospective customers, the club needed to open. Da business must go on! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
Many of the resorts had property damage but there was construction going on everywhere, rebuilding as quickly as possible. The place we usually stay - Travellers Resort, a modestly-priced Jamaican-owned hotel on the end of the beach closest to town - was not damaged and had just gotten back electric power. So they were open and we had a comfortable overnight stay there.
It was odd seeing Negril almost empty of tourists and mostly shut down. It reminded me a bit of visiting the seaside resort towns of Massachusetts in the winter, when the summer tourists are gone and only a handful of hardy year-round residents remain.
The next day, Sunday morning, we continued our drive, proceeding along the hard-hit south coast. The areas around Sav and Black River were ravaged. The hurricane tore off roofs, downed trees, and stripped leaves off those still standing. The road looked like a river in places, and we saw houses nearly submerged in water. Some pictures:
A house near Sav la Mar after a tree fell on it:
Water flooding the road and some nearby houses, also near Sav:
Fallen bamboo along Bamboo Avenue:
We stopped in Mandeville for some lunch. There was some flooding and damage up there but the town had power and was up and running. We then proceeded on our drive toward Kingston.
[To be continued. Part 2 will be in and around Kingston]
- Richard
------------------------------------
We're back! It was a busy and productive trip. Here's a trip report with some pictures.
(for background see my earlier post Ivan hurricane relief trip - wish us luck )
We loaded our 4 large boxes of hurricane-relief supplies - flashlights, batteries, nails and other hardware, tarps, canned food, water - and headed for the airport in Boston early Saturday morning. Our scheduled flight was cancelled and we were re-booked on a US Air flight to MoBay. The first sign that things were not normal was the emptiness of the flight. Even with the combined people from the two flights, the plane - an Airbus designed to hold 200 - had 7 passengers on it. I guess tourists were cancelling and the all-inclusives were rebooking their customers to non-hurricane-ravaged islands.
Amazingly we had no hassles at Logan airport. The airline didn't charge us for our overweight luggage, and the security folks did not make us open the boxes. We got to MoBay with everything intact.
The next sign that things were not normal was MoBay airport. I have never seen it so empty. We walked right up to the immigration folks with no queue. Surprisingly they gave us more hassles there over our boxes than we got at the Boston end. They made us open each one and asked us to put a value on each item. Sheesh - you'd think they'd waive the duties on hurricane-relief supplies! We finally got through without paying duty by rewriting the whole customs declaration in my wife's name, since with her Jamaican passport she is allowed to bring in up to $500 dollars worth of goods. We circled the whole list, wrote $499 in the value column next to the lot, and smacked it down and said "now let us in". So he did.
MoBay was not too badly hit, and apart from the scarcity of tourists, the town was almost back to normal. There was some damage to properties immediately on the water (e.g. Margueritaville) but otherwise the buildings were OK. Power was up. We stopped at a supermarket and bought more food and water to bring to the harder-hit countryside.
We rented a SUV and started driving on the coastal road toward Negril. The towns on the northwest coast - Sandy Bay, Lucea, Green Island - also looked to be in decent shape after the storm. We stopped in Lucea for some lunch. A vendor wanted to sell us something - "please buy something, mi need money for nails to rebuild mi house". We don't want anything, we replied, but we can give you some nails. And to his surprise we opened one of our boxes and gave him some nails! Our first bit of relief aid handed out.
We turned inland at Green Island and started driving uphill toward Cauldwell where our friends live. Here in these impoverished villages in the countryside, the destructive power of Ivan started to become apparent. Everywhere there were downed trees and downed power lines. The road was a mess. The power was out, and from the looks of the mashed-up power lines strewn over the roads, it will still be a while before it comes back. Without power, water-pumping stations were out, so people were walking long distances carrying pails of drinking water. Here's a couple of pics:
Downed power lines strewn along the road:
A felled tree carrying down power lines with it:
We arrived at our friends' house in Cauldwell and found them safe and uninjured, but suffering from roof damage and the loss of many things (refrigerator, TV, schoolbooks) due to water damage. It was so good to see them safe and alive! The pickneys seemed still shaken up by the storm, but when asked "how are you?" the 12-year-old replied "happy, because we're alive". You have to love the Jamaican spirit! Back home I know Americans who have everything but are depressed, and here there were people who have nothing but are happy.
We dropped off a bunch of our supplies and some cash with our friends, picked up a list of damaged schoolbooks and promised to try to replace them, and proceeded onward. We gave away much of the rest of our goods (except for things set aside for my wife's family) to people in that area of Hanover who were also in need. Then we drove into Negril.
Negril was also hard-hit, but was further on the path to recovery than the rural inland areas. I guess getting the tourist business back in operation is a priority. Power was just starting to come back on as we arrived, a week after the hurricane, though there were still many establishments without power, and many were still closed. I heard that the Jungle had reopened the night before on generator power: I guess for the "working girls" and the handful of tourists there who were their prospective customers, the club needed to open. Da business must go on! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
Many of the resorts had property damage but there was construction going on everywhere, rebuilding as quickly as possible. The place we usually stay - Travellers Resort, a modestly-priced Jamaican-owned hotel on the end of the beach closest to town - was not damaged and had just gotten back electric power. So they were open and we had a comfortable overnight stay there.
It was odd seeing Negril almost empty of tourists and mostly shut down. It reminded me a bit of visiting the seaside resort towns of Massachusetts in the winter, when the summer tourists are gone and only a handful of hardy year-round residents remain.
The next day, Sunday morning, we continued our drive, proceeding along the hard-hit south coast. The areas around Sav and Black River were ravaged. The hurricane tore off roofs, downed trees, and stripped leaves off those still standing. The road looked like a river in places, and we saw houses nearly submerged in water. Some pictures:
A house near Sav la Mar after a tree fell on it:
Water flooding the road and some nearby houses, also near Sav:
Fallen bamboo along Bamboo Avenue:
We stopped in Mandeville for some lunch. There was some flooding and damage up there but the town had power and was up and running. We then proceeded on our drive toward Kingston.
[To be continued. Part 2 will be in and around Kingston]
- Richard
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