Hurricane Sandy

Just a quick update for you all: Hurricane Sandy has pummeled Haiti, arriving Wednesday, and has stayed around for two days now. We in Tabarre are safe and as comfortable as we can be under the circumstances! I am grateful for a dry, sturdy home to sleep in and we are being catered to by our Haitian counterparts, who are working hard to keep our elecricity and water going and to provide us with clean drinking water, which will become very important in the following days. We have had HUGE amounts of rain and massively high winds. We are lucky here, however. Much of the country, especially the mountains above us, (our home in Kenscoff) and in the provinces, especially to our west, has taken a much worse hit. Rivers are overflowing, homes are falling and people are essentially stuck where they are because of flooding. The tent cities are saturated, as you might imagine. I try to see myself riding out this storm in a home made of trash bags with a dirt floor, and I cannot fathom it.

I was able to speak with my nurses from the clinic at FWAL, and they are well so far. The floods uphill and in neighboring towns have kept one of them from being able to travel to work. Numerous adjunct employees of NPH have not come to work these last two days. The hospitals are anticipating a rise in the number of cholera patients, as cholera is carried in the water. School has been closed since yesterday, on order of the President. We are hoping that each blast of rain will be the last - please keep the prayers and good thoughts coming our way as we dry out, survey the damage and provide assistance where we can. Fr. Rick and his team were already out in the tent cities yesterday, providing supplies to those in most desperate need.

More updates to come as I have them.