Hurricane Damage in South Caicos

This is the sight that greeted our gaze when we arrived in South Caicos of the Turks and Caicos Islands last week. 

And this roofless church (under HIM) was not the only destroyed building.

Just outside the airport we could see trees blown over or uprooted by the hurricane last September.

There were hardly any roofs left intact. If the roofs still existed, many shingles were torn off, and there were blue tarps tacked down over many roofs.

This is what the piano looked like in the church.

Even some of the stone face of the church front had been wrecked. The church folk had saved what stone they could.

Early the next morning our Mission Helps crew got to work. The first job was to unload the container of building supplies and start putting trusses together.

One thing after another went wrong those first couple days as the team found themselves short of various tools or materials that were supposed to have been shipped on the container.
 
 Jonathan texted someone on another island who was able to shop for some supplies to send over to us on the ferry. Here he is checking the boxes on the dock to make sure we got everything that was shipped across.

 I am continually amazed at how efficient and versatile the men on the teams are when they have to try to figure out how to do things differently than expected. Somehow they accomplish the task anyway!

About three of the crew immediately began to get metal roofing also on the missionary house--something Sis. Marilyn Marchant hadn't dreamed would happen at the same time as the church roof was being done. 

She was so happy for this!
This back porch-turned-into-diningroom had its one wall blown clear off by the hurricane, and another group who came down to help had repaired the walls the best they could at the time. 

Also I think it was the first day we were there that someone from the nearby power plant stopped by and offered that we could go up to the power plant and get as much ice as the crew needed! The plant had a huge ice machine with gallons and gallons of good ice.

How thankful Marilyn and all of us were for this very special blessing! She said this has never happened before. It seemed that many who saw the crew were both amazed at the speedy progress and thankful that someone cared and came to help.

Marilyn went almost every day for two coolers of ice. Here two workers at the power plant are even carrying it out for us!

We truly felt that the Lord had gone before us and prepared hearts.

Community disasters are wonderful times for community to come together and help each other.

Two or three times I went with Sis. Marilyn, and always there were these sights of the hurricane's devastation.

Just wrecks of places!

Crumpled buildings.

Parts of roofs and trash strewn in the water flats. Providenciales had also been hit hard, but there repairs have been done much more quickly. Many people moved out of South Caicos to Providenciales after Hurricane Irma.

The two national ladies living with Sis. Marilyn have been in her home for 10 years ever since an earlier hurricane destroyed their home.
It will take a long time to rebuild.
There is still no internet service on the island. 

This is what used to be the morgue.

Back from our little jaunts for ice or 5 gallon jugs of water, I would help all I could in the kitchen, as Marilyn had 16 people to cook for!
She struggles with arthritis pain and insisted on doing most of the work because she feels better if she keeps moving, she said. You can see the double-decker 5-gallon buckets of water that Frank Vaughn had turned into a water filter. I helped keep those filled and water taken to the guys.

They worked long, hard hours in the bright, hot sun. But we were thankful that the weather was not rainy as it had been earlier, and later it cooled a little. The earlier rains had put a lot of water into the cistern. Almost every home has a very large cistern for rainwater. That is the water source on the island. Here is the house the rest of the crew stayed in across the street from Marilyn, and you can see the huge white block cistern to the left in the center of the photo.

Having that place to use was another little miracle. It belongs to the mother of the top political lady of the island, and when this mother left to spend a couple weeks in Providenciales, she said the crew coming to help Marilyn could use her house and anything in it!
I will have more pictures later of the amazing teamwork of this crew, but here are a few quick snaps I was able to upload this afternoon as I unpacked and put away our stuff, sorted mail, etc. after attending a friend's funeral this morning.

The work progresses.

Hive of busy bees, tossing tarps off the roof and putting up roofing instead.
HIM had sent out an appeal for hurricane repair funding, and God touched many hearts.

I loved the blooming flowers. We were told that all the leaves had been stripped off the trees after the hurricane, but they have grown back and are now blooming again.

An evening photo. The men would work until dark or even past dark some nights, esp. at first when they still had that first surge of excited energy.

I swept up some of the awful mess the second day, but it wasn't much use as there was more mess to come!

In the foreground, you see a tree almost stripped of foliage. But by the church the two trees are looking lovely.

Dave Holderbaum and Jonathan trying to figure out the porch post holders, and how to make a solid, hurricane-proof porch.

It was so hot that several of the guys wore some sort of headdress to keep from getting terribly sunburned.

More coming! I was able to upload lots of pictures today when I was too tired to do much else.