From a resident of Bacalar a week after Hurricane Dean

Friends,

If you don’t have time to read this, please go to www.bacalarmosaico.com to see post-hurricane photos and donate money if you can! I am writing from a virtual war zone, in the lands affected by Hurricane Dean.

For the past few days I have been assisting the Mexican military doctors with a brigade to serve those most affected by the storm. There are thousands, as this was a big storm and it’s swath of destruction ripped through areas inhabited by the humblest of people, many of whom lived in stick and thatch structures. Thanks to an effective evacuation plan, there were few injuries despite the category five winds. While the Mexican government is doing an admirable job of distributing food and water and tar paper roofing material, there are still many whose needs aren’t being met.

Today I spent most of the day visiting families in Bacalar that our mayor deems the most “damnificados”. I met an elderly couple huddled under a collapsed roof, all of their belongings having blown away in the storm. Other older folk are living in the remains of their homes with tarps and salvaged tin roofs that neighbors and friends have constructed for them. There’s a family with four kids, their father in a wheelchair since a back injury a few months ago, living in a borrowed open structure while they wait for help to arrive to rebuild their house. Another family sent their three kids to their first day of school from what remains of their home—a concrete slab with a single mattress sheltered by a piece of laminated metal propped up by sticks.

There are several different federal agencies working together to bring aid to these folks. In addition to the “dispensas” of dry goods and roofing materials, INFOVIR will be building single room concrete structures for those who are homeless. They are out now, surveying door to door, as are the brigades from Mexico’s Secretary of Health. I hope to volunteer with one of these brigades in the coming days as they visit small “ejido” communities whose access roads are finally being cleared. I imagine that these people are even harder hit especially with regard to water, as they depend on electric pumps for potable water.

The small ‘foreign’ community in Bacalar has been assisting the government and churches in distributing water, food, linens, tarps, and money to those most in need. But there are so many, and there’s so much to do!!

Please check out photos at www.bacalarmosaico.com and consider sending money to assist in these efforts if you can. I will be checking email infrequently. Luckily our house and pets fared well in the storm, much better than most! Thanks to all of you who’ve expressed concern. If you know others who might be interested in helping the hurricane victims, please pass this along.

Jacqueline McGrath ND