Maria's Wrath, An unforgettable experience

 All  humans beings have experiences they will never forget, this bitter sweet experience is mines 

Every year as we enter the hurricane season, as we prep for pending hurricanes, we nervously  pray and keep the faith  that there will be no repeat of this unforgettable event. 

It's  September   2017. At the time I worked with  my favorite NGO and we were in the middle of the Caribbean hurricane season which begins in Mid June  and runs through to January of the next year. 

That year was a devastating one as  hurricanes beat a destructive path from the US, wrecking havoc  through several states and Puerto Rico, heading across miami, through the Bahamas and by the time it got to the smaller islands of the Caribbean, she was Maria filled with a vengeance 

Call for help came in from several Caribbean Islands, missions were organised and  a Massive Relief effort was put in place, it meant long days and sleepless nights of packing containers, boxes, shipping pallets and pallets of  food stuff, water, relief items, building material, clothing , medicine and sending teams out of volunteers and medical staff ,while loads of local  volunteers streaming into our camp to lend their hands to the cause. 

By the 18th September the preceeding weather activity  brought with it heavy down pours, that resulted in flooding across Dominica and the nieghbouring Islands including us, we started to  pack relief items for them as it seemed inevitable  hurricane Maria would hit the  Island   hard. 

We worked through the rain late into the night,and  the prayed before the others left  for the island to be spared. 

As we listened to the constant news updates on the television , I remember reading post   by my friend Jane not her real name, as she kept giving minute by minute updates as  the wind began  picking up speed around 9 pm, howling and hissing as   the rain beat down on their nature resort  home  located off grid in the rain forest on  the island. 

Jane  reported hearing the sounds of roofs wrestling with the wind in the dark night and around 11 pm gave her last report  with a message of her Co ordinates, so they could be found should the worst happen, as the power  went out. 

I retired to bed nerously that night with a pray for our iskabd neighbours ,but when I awoke at 5am, there was an eerie silence from the media. 

The frist report was that of a BBC reporter in a fb post, declaring the Commonwealth of Dominica was no more. 

During the night  hurricane Maria had landed with a vengeance on the beautiful nature Island, with an unbelievable force,  mangling steel  roofs, uprooted and destroyed  homes, trees were flung for miles, cars were carried by rivers down to the capital, everything in its pathway was tossed and shifted 

The  swelling seas  rose higher than two storey  buildings  and crossed streets filling the communities with water. 

While the wind battered the Island its sound was described as  a horrible eerie wail  as that of some scary creature of the night. 

 There was hysteria and fear, as water filled homes, hospitals, persons tried to get to safety in total darkness as the power was knocked out. There was no message from Jane. 

My co volunteers and I stood in silence, shock and disbelief and then someone, screamed, there was not a dry eye for several minutes. 

Over the next few days, we would recieve an abundance of new s reports, pictures as the World responded, to a tearful plea from the Islands Prime Minister, we need your help he pleaded, as he preped to go into the streets to access the damage done by Maria to his fellow countrymen, he himself having lost the roof to his home. And according to National Geographic reports 90%of the island was destroyed, both physical, structural and economic  destruction were caused 

Our NGO heightened its Relief Efforts, both Government and Private sector, organisation, churches, families, Individuals all rallied support to assist our nieghbours 

Jane   and her family were  eventually rescued, but lost everything and survived the rain in the aftermath with nothing but the clothes on their backs, huddled in their vechile, the only thing left standing

. They were taken by helicopter to nearby Venezuela and then Canada, where Jane's  family awaited them to help pick up the pieces.

 I eventually arrived on the Island early October,by Coast Guard Vessel which was loaded with supplies  to join my team members and lend my heart and hand to the restoration effort, but that's for another story. 

For the next two months help flooded the island from across the globe, giant ships brought supplies from France, Germany, the US and nieghbouring Caribbean Isle

Our NG0 moved through the island distributing supplies from our base just outside the capital, the sun seemed to be extra hot as most of the vegatation was destroyed, the trees that were left on the normally lush green island all   stood naked at the mercy of the elements 

I saw frist hand the effects of climate change, as for the next few weeks the opportunity would come to venture to different parts of the islands, no where was spared, we saw houses moved with the land and foundation in tack to the other side of the road, or rivers split roads in three seperate waterways. Vechiles and roofs that belonged to persons from a distant community could be found all the way in the next town. And the displacement wasn't just for  physical structures but for the citizens as well. 

But one of most striking was getting to a part of the island by boat to find the community lined up to await supplies, it was tear jerking, there was no status, class, or color defrenitation, they all stood as one, all having loss, all facing the same delima. It was my biggest take away. In times of adversity all that matters is life itself. 

The other was the beautiful friendship s formed with the citizens of the islands, their humility, their resilience, their excitement to share  their stories  of that faithful night at times.

Their eagerness to share their culture, food beauty of the island. It was work, long long days, short nights, we exchanged comfy beds for sleeping cots, the luxury of showers for seabaths  and home cooked meals for tin food, but the fulfillment of being able to make someone's day just a little better in such a critical time was more than worth the trouble. 

But I think this mission did more for me than it did for them, it was a pivotal point, a point at which my purpose became so much clearer, it gave me an inspiration for my frist collection, it gave me a deeper appreciation for the simple things in life, and a deeper faith  God, I witnessed nature's ability to replenish itself quickly, the years has passed and Dominica ihas rebuilt with climate resilient measures in mind, but indeed I still get goose bumps just reliving the experience.