Torrential Rains from Hurricane Irene and the Clinic

Greetings from the water soaked mountainsides of Les Palmes!

Praise the Lord, Hurricane Irene missed us by quite a distance. Though we are thankful that we evaded the full force of the storm, there is currently a battle going on with the consequent downpour of rain which accompanies hurricanes. Sometimes severe rain showers show up over one hundred miles away from the main mass of the hurricane...

Today, during one of the slow periods between monsoon-like downpours, I walked over to the clinic. Armed with my camera (wrapped up in plastic because of the sprinkles), I started up the trail. Everything was soaked. All the trees were dripping with the wetness of fresh rain, and the road was covered with mud.

After dodging puddles, small streams, and slipping on slick rocks, I arrived at the clinic...

The first thing that was apparent was the fact that there had been severe roof leakage. One of the men was mopping up the floor and the mop bucket he was using was almost full; and the floor was still covered with water.

I had heard before that the roof leaked (as I'm sure many of you have also heard) but I didn't realize it was this bad... there was almost an inch of water in the main hall; water was dripping down on the beds, and into the examination rooms.

The man emptied his bucket and began to soak up more water with his mop...

There's only one bed that doesn't have water leaking onto it; all the others get water onto them. They have to use vinyl bed covers on the mattresses, because without, they collect water and grow mold.

With the rains being so heavy, it is a daily battle for the nurses and staff to get the water under control. For the patients, it means having water dripping onto their beds, making them cold, and hampering any recovery they may be undergoing. It also means that the nurses have to watch where they put their instruments, medicine, and paperwork; it means having to take extra time to mop everything up.

For me, it once again reiterated the need for a clinic renovation.

Hopefully, all this will change this winter with the clinic remodeling project. We are hoping to expand the clinic, in addition to repairing the existing structure.

However,  in order to do this, we are still in need of financial assistance.

Would you please consider helping us with this project? If you are prompted to do so, please click the "Donate" tab at the top of the blog here.

All of us here very much appreciate your prayers and support. It was amazing to see how that, as you all were praying, this Hurricane changed its course. Sometimes it is hard for us to understand how much an impact and disaster a hurricane is for the Haitians; yet the reality is that it does affect them in a huge way...

God bless you all! Thanks for reading and helping!

-Nate