On October 30th St. Lucia got hit by Hurricane Tomas, while the winds caused some damage the real devastation came from landslides caused by 10-20 inches of rainfall over a 24 hour period. It was my first disaster and my first hurricane, and possibly the most humbling experience of my life. While I have not had access to water besides what I have stored for 13 days now, and I had to get up at 6am to go to the capital to buy water before the store ran out, which they did when I was standing in line, I feel lucky and blessed. Besides rain seeping in through my windows, nothing happened to me, my people are all safe, and I have enough to survive.
As I continue to see more damage, I realize just how lucky I am. The main highway where it goes through the rain forest lost a lane, and in an area that used to be trees and brush, nothing but green, is now just brown. The trees toppled down in a landslide leaving the road impassable for days, and even now its only a single lane road and will be for some time. Houses collapsed with people in them, others were filled with mud from landslides, rivers flowed through people's houses, depositing trash and debris in yards, and lives were lost.
This devastation has been said to be the worst national disaster in St. Lucia's history, and while the death toll is relatively low, for how small the communities and nation is the numbers feel much larger. It is by no means the worst disaster the world has faced this year, but for me its the first disaster that is tangible to me, every other disaster always feels so far away, but this one effects every aspect of my life, and I can't help but wonder what will happen to my community since most people are in the banana business and everyone lost all of their crop. Will the nation be facing a food shortage are their staples of banana and plantain got chopped down by the hurricane. With damn/water collection sites damaged or destroyed what will happen when we hit the peak of dry season, will pipes continue to run dry? I guess all I can do is hope for the best, and hope to continue to be surprised by St. Lucia's ability to handle this disaster.
The pictures are of my community and on my way to town, there hardest hit areas I haven't been to
