The difficulty faced by Barbudans trying to get back to Barbuda cannot be under-estimated. There is NO FOOD AID in Barbuda yet, people have nowhere to live, no money, it’s traumatic going back to see all your possessions gone and some have children at school or new jobs in Antigua. Fred is doing an amazing job on the ferry – she is the only reliable daily transport and most days there are too many people to fit on. Some want to go to take photographs for their fund-raising, yes really, as if there aren’t enough online, some are amazing helpful volunteers, some are from the UN who are now asking for people to estimate the cost of re-building their homes; the army, scientists – but Fred is putting Barbudans first.
The clean-up is going well, there has been a lot of work done by Solid Waste to clear debris and the GoFundMe/helpBarbuda fund is supporting people to go to their homes to help clean up and aid their return. Samaritans Purse have tarped all the open roofs they can. Generators have been handed out to those who have returned.
But the government appears to have prioritised an international airport over re-building homes so we are faced again with legal action to get the answers we need from them about their intentions for the short and long term future of Barbuda – luckily we have lawyers amongst the volunteers. Most other updates are compiled from all the best sources on the net on facebook barbudaful, and on other ngo or charitable sites, most of whom are trying their best to help on a practical local level, with a few crazy ambulance-chasers that are inevitable in a disaster of this scale thrown in to make it more interesting.