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Hurricane Dennis Bon swa from Haiti, Sorry to be so long in getting this out but we have been out of power and phones since hurricane Dennis gave us a little blast on Thursday. I'm hoping to get this out via satellite phone. Thankfully we are all okay here at the Happy House. Aside from branches down and a couple of wet rooms, we sustained no serious damage here at the house. Petit Goave did however take some heavy blows. As I mentioned, we have been without power for the last 4 days and counting. Sometimes we do that without hurricanes. There were several power poles knocked down and lots of loose lines tied up in trees and laying in the streets. Also the phone lines to call out are...out. Thursday morning I was awakened by the doors all over our house rumbling. It seemed they would come alive and jump off their hinges. There was an unseasonable cool in the air. The sky was dark, though it was already 7:00 AM. It was to stay dark the entirety of the day. It was like Thursday stayed in the womb. Was never born. The sun never came up or out. Powerful gusts of wind came in waves. The trees were shaking. You could here unusual noises outside as thinks were obviously being tossed about and rearranged. A small river broke loose in a ditch behind out property. But for our wall, it would have run right through the house. Instead it made it's way a couple houses down where there was no wall and there it wrought it's havoc. I learned later that there had been neighbors a few houses up that were trying to dig ditches to divert the muddy flow. They came to the point of throwing rocks at each other as they fought over which way to send the current. Trash flowed through the streets. All of the garbage in Ti Goave, which has no system for pick up, was carried downhill. A few folks like zombies wandered the streets. Some, I learned later had lost their homes/shacks. The road between here and Ft Royale is now impassable. A few houses in Ti Ginen were swept into the nearby ocean. We have been in contact with most of the folks we know out there and again thank the Lord, all are safe. The bigger damage affecting our area was in the town of Grand Goave. The next town over from us. A huge, and battered old, bridge that carries the main/only highway from here to Port-Au-Prince, collapsed and was totally taken out. Ironically, and sadly it was there that the biggest death toll has been reported thus far. There is a normally dry river bed that passes under the bridge. As the rain from the mountains began to make it's way down, the dry riverbed was turned into a raging torrent. In Grand Goave itself, there was mostly just rain and people were out and about. Seeing the raging waters gushing from the mountains was a sight to see. Sadly, mixed in the water, were parts of homes, cars, cows, pigs, goats, and a few humans. The spectacles drew hundreds to come out onto the bridge to watch as the destruction passed by beneath them. Then, with only a little trembling in advance, the bridge caved. There are no accurate reports but it appears at least a hundred lost their lives in the spectacle they had come to behold. Kernita's husband was within inches of being one hundred and one. He was there on the bridge but was close enough to some solid steal to grab on. He said he tried to save two other people by hanging on to them with his free hand. Both slipped out of his grasp and were whisked off into the void. His shoes were pulled off and his pants were about to go as he struggled to shore. Some people, upon seeing him get out alive, remarked that he must be a "demon" to have survived. He is actually a Christian whose time was not yet. I cannot begin to give all the details and news continues to leak in. Here in Ti Goave, we are now cut off from PAP. The price of everything here has gone sky high since supplies are hard to come by. Gasoline is about $4 US per gallon. Last week $3 could by 3 chicken quarters, this week it buys two. Many people up in the hills lost their gardens. Some lost the very earth beneath them. The kids have been talking about dogs fighting over unclaimed bodies in the streets. Bodies that the water brought in from who knows where. One guy that died on the bridge had just married a few months ago. Most of the folks out in Ft Royale had some major water go through their huts, but, again, they are all still with us. The sun finally peaked out through the gray lid that has covered us for the last 3 days. The UN is on the scene and trying to dig out some roads and create alternate routes until the old road can be fixed. We've had pretty heavy people traffic here at the house and have been putting out some serious rice, beans, and chicken every day. There were 18 of us in the vehicle I drove to church this morning. We also have Yves and Roselin, who lost their huts in Mapou last year, here at the house with us. I'm gonna go for now. The next door neighbors got their hands on a little generator and are having an all night party in their yard. The music is so loud, I can't even hear my computer right in front of me. Thus it is 3:00 in the morning as I type this.....sweating......in the dark. Suffice it to say, we made it through the storm, now we need to get through the aftermath. I am confident that someday I'll look back on all this from farther away than I am right now, and it will be a little easier to digest. At the moment I feel a little tired. NOT discouraged, but a little tired. The fact that it is now 3:12 may be influencing me as well. Please keep us in your prayers. I sure hope this e-mail makes it out...... I just finished spell checking. Now it's 3:23. Time to get out the sat phone and head up on the roof. Take care and Bon Dieu beni nou! fre Ed |