OBI’s president Bill Horan arrives in St. Lucia with the Cayman envoy, bringing water purification units to the island.

ST. LUCIA – Operation Blessing is partnering with the government of the Cayman Islands for a disaster relief effort to help the devastated Caribbean island of St. Lucia.

Hurricane Tomas hit St. Lucia hard last week, with electricity, telephone and clean water service out across most of the island. More than a dozen people were killed and damage assessment has been difficult due to storm debris.

Bill Horan, president of OBI, received a telephone call over the weekend from McKeeva Bush, Premier of the Cayman Islands, asking if OBI could join with the government of Cayman in an effort to airlift relief supplies to St Lucia.

Initially, OBI provided non-perishable food including MREs (meals-ready-to-eat) that were airlifted into St. Lucia on Wednesday morning along with other relief supplies donated by the people of the Cayman Islands.

Horan and David Darg, international disaster relief director for OBI, will accompanied the supplies to St. Lucia on Wednesday and are meeting with local officials to better assess other critical needs.

Contaminated water is spreading sickness throughout St. Lucia, and villagers across the island are in desperate need of clean water.

OBI is also readying two WMI water filtration/purification units that are each capable of filtering and disinfecting 10,000 gallons of water per day. OBI has used WMI machines in over 15 countries during the past five years and currently operates 35 of them in Haiti at various locations including Haiti's largest hospital in Port-au-Prince and the hospital in St. Marc, the center of the current cholera outbreak.

The WMI units are to arrive in St. Lucia later this week, where David Darg will assist with their installation and training locals in the operation and maintenance of the equipment. Darg is currently on the ground in Haiti managing OBI’s humanitarian efforts there.

Bill Horan said, “We have partnered with the Cayman government following several Caribbean disasters including their own, when Hurricane Ivan ravaged Grand Cayman in 2004. The people of the Cayman Islands are very generous and always show a willingness to share their own resources with other island nations in times of natural disaster. In this case, the offer of sending a Cayman Airways 737 has opened an opportunity for Operation Blessing to reach out to the people of St. Lucia. This is what synergy is all about.”

HOW YOU CAN HELP
You can help by making an online donation toward OBI's disaster relief efforts. With your support, we can continue to provide emergency relief and recovery. Please make an on-line donation today.

 

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