I spoke with Charlie and Estel yesterday, and also with Luis from San Pedrito. Charlie and Estel informed me that cleanup and repair of frontside hotels is progressing nicely. Luis reaffirmed that virtually everything is gone in San Pedrito, but they're cleaning up. He says it may be as late as January before power is restored to San Pedrito. In the meanwhile distribution of relief supplies is "slow" (my quotes). We need to urge Patty Arceo to do what she can, pull out another miracle, to get supplies to the most affected folks. A "relief" effort that may be of assistance now is to find work for locals like him in lieu of handouts. Perhaps we can help in that endeavor via this message board?

PS - some additional information I remembered after my first cup of coffee. Charlie, Estel and Luis all reiterated that there was no health epidemic down there. Just a few colds and sniffles. They need lanterns desperately because of lack of power in San Pedrito and San Pablo. For those who have been seeking Richie Woods, Charlie tells me that he's seen him around since the storm. He appears to be fine, as is Paisano.

This is exactly why I've been asking about the Town Board, etc; to see where things were getting done, and to what extent. Now there's something to work with...lights! Thanks for the post, I'll try and send some stuff down ASAP. It won't be much, but I guess every little bit will help. Hang in there, gang!

we're trying to get lanterns, and they also need cook stoves badly. butane cook stoves

Daemyon,
The only thing about lanterns is the fule for them. When I left on Friday after Keith hit, it wa hard to get fuel for lanterns. I don't know about now. I talked to my partners at the Hideaway day before yesterday and they were requesting that I bring back 12 hour candels, vitamin C, insect repellent, Batteries and dry shoes as their top needs. I'm going back this Friday. I asked about health risk and they said that they had talked to Dr. Lariad (sp?) who lives across the street from us and she said her main concern was hepatitis A. She said that as long as we practice good sanittion rules, wear insect repellent, and stay in as much as possible every one should be all right. She said the ideal thing to do would be to leave the island for about two weeks but since we couldn't do that just to do the above.

Okay, so what about MagLights and battery-operated lanterns? The cook stoves should be easy enough to send, but would you rather have the ones that use gas or Sterno? Would sleeping bags and tents help? I'm thinking camping gear here, but I don't know what the shelter situation is...or whether there's dry ground to place those on!
As for the hepatitis, the only thing that stops that(in some cases) is Gamma-Globulin introduced BEFORE you contract it...be careful!
I'll see what I can do; there are a few Big-5's and Sports Authority's around here, so I'll attempt to get the stuff comp'ed...if not, I'll buy it and ship it down to you.

Mag lights and Battery lanterns would be best with a good supply of batteries. As for stoves, the gas ones might be best unless you could send a good supply of Sterno. Tents I'm not sure about because the ground is so wet. Sleeping bags can always be put on some ones dry floor it would be much better than the bare floor.
Understand, I have been gone for 10 days so it would be best to check with someone who is there now. I will be talking to them this eveing so if you don't find out before then I will ask. Let me know if there are any other questions that they might can answer. As for the Hep.A, I had vacine for it in 1994 so I think I'm still protected. Keep up the good work. Pat

Here's an update on items needed:
Lanterns and batteries
(flourescent kind work great)

Safe cookstoves
(if sending the coleman type that uses disposable gas bottles....please make sure to include the adaptors that convert it to LP gas tanks. These are NOT available here)
<font size=4 color="red">BUTANE BEST!!!!</font>

Family Sized Tents
(must hold 4-6 people. Smaller ones are of no use. These will be used for entire families)

Folding cots
(small canvas army kind are good)

Pillows, lightweight blankets, sheets, lightweight towels.
(remember these people are washing by hand. The lighter weight towels are functional and easier to wash) (It's hot here..so heavy blankets aren't necessary)

Diapers, diaper pins, rubber pants would be a plus.
(cloth diapers are one size fits all..just fold, are easy to wash and don't fill up the land fill)

Thanks for all that has been done already!



[This message has been edited by Marty (edited 10-18-2000).]

We were luck to be loaned a small propane camping stove for a while. We were very conservative and still used a small tank of propane every 2 days. At $15 BZ a bottle, this is way too expensive considering many people will be using these stoves for the next month or two at least.

We now have butane stove top. Butane is easy to get here and much, much cheaper.

I understand you can get adapters for propane stoves so that they can run on butane.

Apart from the worry of fuel for "hurricane" lanterns, we need to remember the very prevalent risk of fire. Although more costly, battery operated lamps would be best.

Also, candles with wide bases or good wide based candle holders.

Thanks to everybody that is contributing to getting our town and communities on their feet again.

Thanks for the news, Maz! I'm wondering if they are goin to rebuild San Pedrito. Guess they will, although it's not a very well conceived project to begin with... Here is a modest idea. How bout these cheap little bbq grills for a temporary fix. A little money this time of year at "Big Lots" could get ya a good number of units. The locals love to BBQ. I'm sure there is plenty of kindlin around.