Today marks one month since the beautiful island of Dominica was devastated by Hurricane Maria and we are all still in shock as to the extent of the damage. The 160 mph winds literally sheared the bark off trees, roofs were peeled off homes and rivers actually flowed through some of our staff members’ homes. Every single Dominican I’ve spoken to describes the howl of the wind as so haunting they pray they never have to experience that again.
I’ve lived on Dominica many years. This community welcomed me and has become my home. Together, we built Rosalie Bay Resort, provided employment, improved the lives of local families and developed sustainability programs so that the world could get to know the Nature Island. Dominicans are beautiful, resilient survivors, but they desperately need our help.
Fortunately Rosalie Bay Resort was closed for the month of September for our annual renovation projects so there were no guests in-house when the storm hit late Monday, September 18, 2017. I was off the island although Oscar weathered the storm at the resort. Since then, we both have temporarily relocated to St. Lucia where we are coordinating relief efforts along with IsraAID, a rapid response team we arranged to be on the ground in Dominica.
All of our resort staff are safe, however all have endured serious losses of their homes and many need to completely rebuild their lives. They have only received minimal amounts of relief and are still in need of food, water and basic necessities.
Priorities now are getting relief to the people of Dominica. Communications are still extremely limited but progress is slowly being made. It will be a long road to recovery, but Dominicans are at the mercy of the global community for aid and rebuilding.
Donate to Dominica
Thank you to those who have reached out with well wishes and prayers. Many have asked how they can help. Please consider donating to our ongoing relief efforts.
Donate here to support the relief efforts in the areas surrounding Rosalie Bay on Dominica. Your donations will go directly to the Dominicans who need it most.
Please also help spread the word that Dominica needs help. Unfortunately, the need remains much longer than the news reports on the devastation. The more people who are aware of our suffering, the more support our island can get for a chance at recovery.
As I write this, our good friend Jake Levenson of Oceans Forward, and his team of volunteers, are working with Turks & Caicos REEF Fund and have a plane-load of supplies on its way to St Lucia for boat delivery to Dominica. We are so grateful and I look forward to telling you more about Jake in my next update.
Thank you for your support,
Bev Deikel
