Hurricane Beryl Relief
Restoring Paradise Beach Club
KINDNESS comes to aid Carriacou Grenada in her recovery from Category 4 Hurricane Beryl's direct hit. We've teamed up with Rise Grenada and Operation Cruisers Aid to offer support and are on sight in Carriacou. Paradise Beach Club is the first of several projects endorsed by Rise Grenada in conjunction with Spice Island Marine.
Carriacou Grenada-Rise Grenada at Paradise Beach Club
KINDNESS partnered up with two charitable organizations, the first being Rise Grenada. Rise Grenada was formed by cruisers, content creators, and local businessmen in Grenada to provide immediate relief in the wake of Hurricane Beryl. The group quickly raised over $100,000.00 to help several small businesses get back up and running. They are also working to set up several RO water stations around the island for residents to get fresh drinking water.
One of the first business/locations to be restored though Rise Grenada is Paradise Beach club. This very popular destination for cruisers unique to Carriacou has welcomed cruisers for years. By helping rebuild the Paradise Beach Club quickly, the restaurant will act as a soup kitchen for the local residents. The goal is to have Paradise Beach Club up and running before the Cruiser Season begins in October. Cruisers play such a vital component of economy and will accordingly play a vital role in the island’s recovery.
Rise Grenada’s strategy enables small businesses to reopen so jobs can be available and the generated income of the locals, in turn, can fuel further recovery to the island.
As part of Rise Grenada, KINDNESS became a cargo ship delivering three skiff loads of lumber to Paradise Beach Club. Through our documenting efforts we hope to raise awareness of the situations these islands face and ideally fuel fundraising efforts.
KINDNESS also teamed up with Operation Cruisers Aid (OCA) to bring medicine, bug spray, and solar lights for relief efforts through NaDMA. While being in Carriacou waiting to see if we could house med staff, we also joined efforts with the sister branch of OCA, Operation Refloat and Recovery. ORR consists of cruisers and some locals volunteering their time to help the boats piled up in the mangroves. We met hurricane survivor John A. Smith while delivering Chili to those living on their boats in the mangroves. John, no stranger to hurricanes, weathered the storm on his boat. To hear the story was amazing and what they experienced was truly unbelievable. One couple spent nine hours under their over-turned boat. Many, many boats were lost, some sunk, many cats flipped upside-down. It was not a pretty sight. See more below.
Help With Recovery Efforts
Carriacou, Petit Martinique, and Union Island were slammed with 150 mph sustained winds, 180 mph gusts. Want to help in the recovery effort? Here are some great options:
Dave’s work was able to match donations through Hope Worldwide
Hope Fleet & Seven Seas Cruising Association
Operation Refloat and Recover (ORR)
Cruisers really do care about the islands we visit, the people who live there, and of course our fellow cruisers. One of the bigger needs that was not addressed by NGO’s is the pile of forty plus boats left by Beryl in the mangroves of Tyrrel Bay. Operation Cruisers Aid (OCA) put together a separate branch called Operation Refloat and Recover(ORR), with a gofundme to aid in this portion of the recovery program. Again this is a volunteer group of mostly cruisers, joined by a few locals, coming together to make a difference. Trying to save as many of the boats as possible and clean up the mangroves so they can recover from the hurricane as well. It’s a slow moving process to get these boats out. In the beginning, we had only dinghies with 9-15 hp engines. We tried to help with our dinghy and sadly messed up our patch, so unfortunately our slow leak is back again. A small price to pay when you see these beautiful boats getting more and more weathered by the day.
Last count 16 more boats have been removed. The pile that once was over forty boats, is down to about fourteen boats in a month’s time. All thanks to the joined efforts of some caring cruisers, some locals with expertise and good hearts, and the benevolent deals with local fishermen and Husky a professional salvage company from the BVI.
Harold Neel one of the major players in the Operation Refloat and Recovery, has a non profit venture with his 72’ Schooner Cassiopeia II. Please check out the links for more information. He sidestepped his own benevolent project to help out in the mangroves. The first link is to Violante in the mangroves getting moved to safety. There are several more live feeds on Harold’s FB page.
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/PBHfScAg98eDeEMj/?mibextid=WC7FNe
https://cassiopeiaschoonerproject.org/
https://web.facebook.com/groups/444251059401800/
Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEa2FvGKVFg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hnjpb8fwcooxjk4/Cassiopeia%20Presentation%2010%2028%2022pdf?dl=0
Another key player to the operation is Shaun Thayson. His vast experience as a diver, and experience with salvage projects was instrumental in figuring out how to detangle the mess safely and efficiently. Shaun was very active immediately after the storm before the recovery project even began. Shaun’s involvement with the operation happened simultaneously while balancing his own business and helping at the dockyard where several of his clients boats were located. We super appreciate his help and supervision. Now that Operation Refloat and Recovery is winding down, Shaun remains to make sure the final boats get out of the mangroves.
Petit Martinique Island
We had an opportunity to visit Petit Martinique last weekend. Jonathan Petramala @JonathanPetramala and Brandon Clement @WXChasing needed a lift up to Petit Martinique to do a follow up on their initial coverage of Hurricane Beryl. You can see the episodes here: Hurricane Beryl Drone , Follow up, Initial Coverage, behind the scenes
Having been in Carriacou for a week, we realized upon arriving at Petit Martinique, the situation there, is easily a week or two behind Carriacuo in terms of supplies and recovery. They are still in need of many basic needs like temporary shelter, and water. The RO water system was still getting up and running, and most of their rainwater was caught by the roofs that are no longer there available having been literally blown away.
Speaking with the people though, you still find hope and resolve. They are confident things will turn around, and there is gratitude to simply be alive. It is difficult to see so much devastation, yet encouraging to see people coming together to rebuild.