Hurricane Damage - Arial Tour

As many of you know, Hurricane Tomas hit St Lucia on Sunday, October 31st.  This video gives an idea of the widespread damage the island - which is volcanic, and its geography meant many mudslides.

A write up from the "Sun, Rain, Or .." blog by Finola Prescott, who has excellent connections to the situation in St Lucia:

What happened? A huge storm came up fast. So fast that no-one had time to prepare. Now granted, we all know we are supposed to prepare every year at the start of the hurricane season. But really. Most of us spend our waking and some sleeping hours trying to figure out how to make ends meet. Our little paradise island is not an easy place to live in and get everything you need to do done - cost of living is high, wages are not so; most people manage a decent enough life...but it doesn't extend to it being easy to prepare for rare disasters.
So the reality is most people give thanks for the blessings they have and hope to live another day; it's a common parting phrase "See you tomorrow, if God/Life spare". We live like most, in a balance of gratitude, work and complacency.
So today there is mobilization. Soufriere is almost incomprehensible. If you know Soufriere, it is one mountain after a next. St. Lucia is like that, but in Soufriere it is more mountains, more height in less space. So tourism, local housing....it's all on steep slopes or in the valley where the river ends. That's in the main, how St. Lucia is built.
When you fly over the island, you see snakes of houses perched on ridges, that's how we do it, and on most days, that's fine. But if you fly over today, you'll see swathes of red mud - our island is covered in a thick layer of red clay soils and in the rainy season, the water builds up and builds up until it can't hold anymore. To be honest, I don't think we yet have figures for total rainfall in the South as recording instruments were broken, but I heard we had 10 inches (250mm) in 24 hrs. Our soils were already soaked - they couldn't hold anymore.
We need help - there are calls for heavy duty earth movers, people need to lend their boats to the effort and we surely will need help keeping order as people will be getting desperate. With a tropical wave approaching, expected tomorrow, we pray that it does not develop or that it goes somewhere else as we cannot withstand more rain. Roads that people have been using, houses that are clinging by inches, if it rains, they will slip. It is probably worth trying to get as many people out of Soufriere before any further rain hits...I'll keep updating as I have news, but in the meantime -
I called the Red Cross - the main agency that assists here and they gave me the following info if you'd like to send money:
Donate to help for Tomas victims: St. Lucia Red Cross, First Caribbean International Bank, Bridge St. Castries, A/C # 2645392 swift code FCIBLCLC -Donate to help for Tomas victims: St. Lucia Red Cross, First Caribbean International Bank, Bridge St. Castries, A/C # 2645392
Swift codes for Intermediary Banks for funds coming in the following
currencies:
USD Wachovia Bank N.Y, SWIFT: PNBPUS3NNYC, ABA: 026005092
GBP BARCLAYS BANK, SWIFT: BARCGB22
EURO KBC BAN, SWIFT: KREDBEBB
Beneficiary Bank: FirstCaribbean Int’l
Bank Swift: FCIBLCLC
Because we are not so set up for e-commerce, you can't donate direct with your credit card - you can donate to the main Red Cross, but it won't reach us so fast - so please take the time to go to your bank and make a transfer using the info above.
Also NEMO (National Emergency Management Org)
there are full bank account details for emergency relief there.