Update: December 10, 2007
Recently, Sister Frances Cunningham, OSF (World Mission Ministries Director) and Sister Rosemary Huddleston, OP (World Mission Ministries International Mission Coordinator) traveled to Sagrada Familia to meet with parish leaders and members and to have a first hand look at how lives have been affected.
They received an official report from the parish on the damages and the costs related to the need for reconstruction, repair, and replacement of homes and latrines. Please click here to read the report.
We have also prepared a presentation of facts about and photographs of the damage. Please click here to view the presentation as a .pdf file. Please be patient with the download; it is a large file.
As always, we thank you for your support and ask for your continued prayers.
Update: November 21, 2007
World Mission Ministries has received photographs from Sagrada Familia. These photographs represent only a small part of the devastation Tropical Storm Noel has caused in the parish.
As reported, numerous bridges and roadways were damaged or destroyed by the storm.
Click here to see a bridge destroyed by the storm.
The water and mud left behind by the storm has made travel within the parish difficult. The following photos depict what was once a small crossing on the way to 2C, Galindo Adentro, and Galindo Afuera.
One of the communities heavily affected by Tropical Storm Noel was El Rosario, a village with a close connection to the Archdiocese.
You may click here to read about our Archdiocesan connection with El Rosario.
Please click on the links below to see images of the damages in El Rosario.
As always we ask you to continue to check this website for updates regarding the situation in Sagrada Familia, and we ask for your continued prayers and support for our sisters and brothers in the Dominican Republic.
November 9, 2007: Update on effects of Tropical Storm Noel on our diocesan sister parish in the Dominican Republic
In an interview with your Catholic Herald, published November 8, Fr. Marti Colum gave a preliminary overview of the toll inflicted on the people of Sagrada Familia.
Since that interview, Fathers Marti and Oriol have told us that:
- Of the twenty-nine villages, ten (which were home to close to 7,000 people) were isolated and inaccessible for about one week. Five shelters for refugees were opened throughout the 130 square miles of parish territory.
- Close to 250 homes were either destroyed or badly damaged.
- In the few days since the storm, the parish has focused on the following areas:
- Ensuring the availability of food and drinking water for all inhabitants of the area.
- Putting in place necessary infrastructure for the prevention and treatment of water-borne diseases, including wide-spread distribution of mosquito nets.
- Currently local organizations, mainly based in the capital Santo Domingo, are sending boxes of food (including sausages!) and a limited number of mosquito nets.
At the moment, the parish is focusing on the needs of six villages with a total of 136 families (or 816 people) who have lost everything they own in the storm. Fathers Marti and Oriol are trying to gather resources to provide beds, mattresses, sheets, kitchen utensils, water tanks and filters and to help to repair and rebuild damaged and destroyed homes.
Representatives of all 29 villages will be meeting with our priests to give statistics on the effect of Tropical Storm Noel on their villages. Sisters Frances and Rosemary of the World Mission Ministries Office will go to Sagrada Familia to meet with Fathers Marti and Oriol and people of the parish in mid-November.
Please continue to check this website for up-to-date information, and, as always, please continue to pray with us and with your sister parish for the relief efforts and the health and safety of all involved.
November 2, 2007 Update on the Situation in Sagrada Familia
On Friday, November 2nd, World Mission Ministries received an update from Father Martí Colom about the damage caused by Tropical Storm Noel.
Please click here for the report.
Updated November 2nd, 2007
Below is the information as received on Tuesday, October 30th
The World Mission Ministries office has spoken with Father Martí Colom, who reported the following information about the storm's impact in the Dominican Republic:
- There was no warning about the storm because it is not a hurricane. However, it is a very serious tropical storm that is causing enormous damage throughout the country.
- It is reported that there have been as many as 30 deaths throughout the country. There is an unconfirmed report of one death in one of the villages of the parish.
- Until the rains stop, it is impossible to assess the scope of the damage.
- While the rains had been letting up for a time, it has started to rain heavily again.
- There is no electricity. Father Martí was trying to connect a generator.
- The canal in Sabana Yegua is almost at overflowing (though it has not yet).
- Father Martí and the missionary community in Sabana Yegua were working at 3:00 in the morning, checking that people within their range were still safe. Father Oriol and two members of their community are stranded in Santo Domingo.
- Many bridges are washed out. They include, for example, the bridge that connects Sabana Yegua with Azua and the one on the road to Los Negros, 2-C, and Barreras (the one where everyone washes their cars).
- The community of El Rosario has been evacuated.
- Most of the communities continue to be unreachable. Some catechists have cell phones, but those are running out of power and cannot be re-charged due to the lack of electricity.
- Fields are flooded. Their crops will be lost.
- People are harvesting some of the plantains for food, as all connections to food and supplies are cut off.
- In Sabana Yegua, the community is beginning to bake bread to hand out to those who come to the door.
We ask that you and your communities keep in prayer our sisters and brothers in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
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