As many of you know, Dominica was hit very hard by category 5 Hurricane Maria in 2017. While the hurricane lasted only 5 hours over the island, the sustained 200mph winds damaged every part of the island’s natural growth and infrastructure. This is the second major natural disaster in 3 seasons following Tropical Storm Erika in 2015. Some of the damage to roads and bridges caused by flooding from TS Erika had still yet to be repaired. Maria’s high winds caused much more extensive island wide damage.

The picture of Indian River below shows some of the damage to the natural habitats. The Indian river was enveloped in a complete shady canopy just a few short months ago. Now the canopy is simply gone. Many of the trees are starting to rebuild the leaves and branches at the top but it will be many years before the canopy is restored to its former glory.

The infrastructure was seriously damaged across the island. In Portsmouth, most buildings are still without power. Almost every powerline on the island suffered catastrophic damage. Below you can see the original power lines on both the left and right sides of the road where the lines are hanging from damaged poles. On the left you can see a new line erected since the hurricane bringing essential power to core business infrastructure.

While the work is ongoing, most residential Dominicans simply have no power yet to their houses. Most houses are damaged enough that the power company cannot reconnect them until roofs, windows, walls and doors are repaired.

We have met many good people from around the world here helping with the reconstruction process. First and foremost, fresh clean water was restored. While there is still much work to be done here, fresh clean water is now available on each major street. This means however, that most households need to bottle water at the street taps and carry the water home for use.

We connected with a few like minded, focused cruisers to help with a few projects. Bill and Laurie from SV Toodle-oo, John and Kathryn and kids from SV Nahanni, Mark and Miaya were coordinating a few projects that required some helping hands and we had a few of these available on Saphira Blue.

First, we went to the local Portsmouth radio station which had lost the broadcasting antenna downed in the hurricane along with half of the roof of the broadcast building. They were not quite ready for us but we found a roofing project right next door that really needed some extra hands. Bill, Mark and I spent the day helping to finish repairs. On the far right of the picture, you can see the antenna tower from the radio station next door that fell across the back yard of this house.

The day was a success. The roof was finished when we left for the day and Chris painted the exterior panels ready for installation.

The next day, we managed to clean up much of the debris at the radio station and disassemble the large broadcasting antenna that was laying on the ground so it can be erected again when the new foundation is installed. As you can see, the electric power infrastructure is piled up on the ground to the left of the building.

We spent several days cleaning and preparing the station to get it back on track. There were a few solar panels and batteries donated for the effort to get the radio station back into broadcasting status in the interim while the power system is being repaired. The yard is much cleaner now with the antenna tower neatly stacked. The roof still needs new steel but it is very difficult to get materials to do the repairs simply because there is so much to be done across the whole island. John, Kathryn and kids from SV Nahanni will be installing the solar panels in the coming days.

The Lamb’s Feast is a humanitarian organization that makes food for the housebound elderly. The building had lost its entire roof and sustained damage to the refrigerator and stove used for this effort.

John, Mark and I spend the day working on rebuilding the trusses for the roof while the kids cleaned up around and in the building.

Lots of work to be done here.

There are still many days of work needed to complete this project but it was definitely for a worthy cause.

We could have stayed a few months helping out here but we made as much of an impact in the 2 weeks we spent here as we could. Unfortunately, the school work was falling behind due to the lack of internet infrastructure so we made the call to move on and wished our new friends fair winds.

John and Kathryn from SV Nahanni were instrumental in finding worthy projects to work on at the radio station and Lamb’s Feast. We wish our good friends fair winds as they return to Canada after several successful years cruising.

…. And their children, Simon and Wavey got along fabulously with our younger two, Katerina and Nikolas. We hope to see you again soon.

Bill and Laurie from SV Toodle-oo and Mark and Miaya, fair winds and we hope to see you again down the island chain.