Prime Minister Stephenson King (St. Lucia, West Indies) issued a declaration of disaster last weekend as the death toll attributed to Hurricane Tomas reached 12 today. The storm moved over the island very slowly at only 8 miles hour, causing a great amount of damage. In fact, two years worth of rainfall was dropped in a time period of 24 hours!! Tomas is rated as a Category 1 hurricane and damaged schools, houses, and very important roads and bridges - some that were the only means of reaching villages. Aid from the United States and France were expected to arrive today. Hurricane Tomas is currently heading towards Jamaica and is expected to hit Haiti by Friday with sustained winds of 100 mph!
The people of Haiti have obviously been warned but they need to assess the damage this storm has already caused. The Haitians need to be prepared for what is to come of this slow moving storm. They should try to pack up anything and everything they can and take it to safe ground, since Tomas moved across St. Lucia at only 8 mph. This is extremely slow for a hurricane to move - meaning it has more time to damage the area it is moving across. Aid relief in St. Lucia should be focusing on finding any missing people first, while also repairing roads and bridges that can be used for evacuation.
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