Eleuthera and Cat Island

Eleuthera
KP, Sam, Zack...and a lot of tarps!
Today on Eleuthera Island
the camp staff and other volunteers were able to gather and distribute supplies
such as tarps and nails to the local community. They were able to deliver
around 30 tarps and had a few local volunteers around to help put them on the
houses. The local volunteers also put tarps on the roof at camp. KP was able to
visit many of the BMH recent and current worksites. Many of you have asked
about several of the houses so here is the update:

   Olga Bowles–James Cistern – the roof and new rooms are all intact
Janette Davis/Burrows – Governor’s Harbor - There were only two pieces of plywood that came off the side of the house so minor damage. The yellow house that Janette and family is currently living in had a lot of shingles that came off the left side of the house. Today they were able to get a tarp to cover up the damaged area
Scavella – House is all good
The Pink House in Cat Island – only a couple of shutters fell off.
There were four planes of supplies delivered to Eleuthera today.  
Cat Island
Cat Island Water damage

Today Abraham, John Short,
and Andre Butler flew into Cat Island to drop off supplies and to do an
assessment of the damage and figure out what the needs are there. Cat Island is
in a lot worse shape than Eluethera due to a strong Storm Surge and flooding.
There were three to four feet of water in some of the houses we saw. There are
around 2,000 people on Cat Island and right now they have no power and no
access to drinking water. The Reverse Osmosis Plant on the Island has no power
and no generator to produce clean drinking water. Many of the locals are
collecting rain water right to drink and use for cooking.  The local community on Cat Island are
trying to salvage and clean any items they can out of the water damaged houses.
As you walk around the Island you can see laundry and other items hung out to
dry.  Many people seemed to have
lost most of what was inside their house due to rain and flood damage.  Most of the houses have at least roof
damage and others have lost entire walls. There are some real home repairs
needed on Cat Island.
We are going to head to
Acklin tomorrow to do an assessment of the damage there. NEMA has asked for our assistance so we are flying Bahamas Red
Cross supplies tomorrow to Ackilns and Crooked Islands...the two hardest hit
islands.The Red Cross and NEMA are
counting on our pilots and aviation fuel to get their supplies to the Southern
Islands.  

Most basic necessities on the Island are still scarce and hard to come by on the Island. The local community has no power and will not have it for at least another week. Access to water, food, and fuel is still very limited. They are hoping that that a ship of supplies will be able to leave Nassua on Wednesday.  So the planes of supplies we are delivering is the only access to  the basic necessities for a while.  The aviation fuel to deliver these basic necessities is costly so please consider donating towards Aviation Fuel. We would like to thank our pilots who have already donated their time, fuel, and sweat!  (Did we mention that it is very HOT here?!)
Jon short, Andre Butler, & Dremmy at Arthur's town
Special thanks to our Pilots!
Sam & Zack Frazier, Gainsville, FL
Gene and Suzie Schmidt, Pensacola, FL
Jon Short, Cullman, AL

Barry Marz, Fort Myers, FL


Please continue to pray for
our volunteers, BMH staff, and all relief effort workers as the work continues.
We are all praying for those dealing with Hurricane Irene in the States today
and days to come. 

                                   

Food bucket assembly line!

Camp road

             

Shane, Pauleen, Vonnia, Pastor Whyte, & Randy