Be safe and be strong... please take care of yourself and each other!

Warm wishes and support from your counterparts at Saba.

__________________
Ducman
Saba University School of Medicine

I hope everyone is ok. From what it says in this article, it sounds like the devastation was terrible.


Hurricane Ivan Devastates Grenada

Sep 8, 9:05 AM (ET)

By LOREN BROWN

ST. GEORGE'S, Grenada (AP) - Hurricane Ivan made a direct hit on Grenada, killing at least three people as it turned concrete homes into piles of rubble and hurled the island's landmark red zinc roofs through the air.

The most powerful storm to hit the Caribbean in 10 years also damaged homes in Barbados, St. Lucia and St. Vincent, just days after Hurricane Frances rampaged through and went on to cause massive damage in Florida.

Ivan strengthened even as it was over Grenada on Tuesday, becoming a Category 4 storm and getting even more powerful as it headed across the Caribbean Sea on a projected route to bear down on Jamaica late Thursday.

"After Jamaica, it's probably going to hit somewhere in the U.S. unfortunately," said meteorologist Jennifer Pralgo of the Hurricane Center in Miami. "We're hoping it's not Florida again, but it's taking a fairly similar track to Charley at the moment."

Hurricane Charley killed 27 people in southwest Florida last month and caused an estimated $6.8 billion in insured damage.

Howling winds raged through the hilly streets of St. George's, Grenada's capital, on Tuesday trashing concrete homes, uprooting trees and utility poles, and knocking out telephone service and electricity. The islands were cut off from the rest of the world and transmission was halted from the Grenada Broadcast Network, whose building suffered major damage.

The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency based in Barbados said Wednesday three confirmed deaths were blamed on the storm but it had lost contact with Grenada's emergency officials before getting more details.

The emergency agency's office building, the 19th century Great House at Mount Wheldale in St. George's, "was destroyed" and officials were trying to relocate when they lost contact, officials said.

Several hundred people had been evacuated from low-lying areas of St. George's. ChevronTexaco said it evacuated nonessential staff from a natural gas well off Venezuela's Atlantic coast. Venezuela's government put the South American country's north coast on hurricane watch Tuesday night, and a hurricane warning was posted for the Dutch islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.

"They (Grenadians) had about two hours of just hellacious winds ... took a really bad beating," meteorologist Hugh Cobb of the U.S. Hurricane Center in Miami told The Associated Press. "This is a very dangerous hurricane now."

Grenadian Prime Minister Keith ******** said his home has been flattened, Trinidadian leader Patrick Manning told reporters after a telephone conversation. Manning said ******** asked for help and promised to send Eastern Caribbean $3.7 million in food and other aid.

The Barbados emergency agency said it has been "flooded with calls and e-mail from anxious relatives" and was sending a team into St. George's Wednesday.

More than 1,000 people rushed to shelters in Grenada, made up of several islands with about 100,000 residents. It is best known for a 1983 U.S. invasion following a left-wing palace coup.

There also were unconfirmed reports that storm damage allowed prisoners to escape Grenada's crumbling and overcrowded 17th century prison, a zinc-roofed stone edifice on a hilltop. For more than 20 years the prison has held former Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard and 16 others convicted for killings in the coup.

Ivan's sustained winds were clocked at 120 mph as it raced through the Windward Islands. But it strengthened to 140 mph with gusts just over 160 mph.

Cobb said Ivan would be the first Category 4 storm to hit Caribbean islands since Hurricane Luis wrought havoc in 1990.

He said that if Ivan hit Jamaica, it could be more destructive than Hurricane Gilbert, which was only Category 3 when it devastated the island in 1988.

He said Ivan's heaviest rains, concentrated in its eastern sector, likely will sweep the southern peninsula of Haiti, the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere where deforestation and a proliferation of shacks make any excessive rain a deadly force. Heavy rains in May triggered floods that killed some 1,700 people and left 1,600 missing and presumed dead in Haiti and neighboring Dominican Republic.

At 8 a.m. EDT, Hurricane Ivan was centered about 190 miles east of Bonaire with the eye expected to pass north of the Dutch islands Wednesday afternoon. Hurricane-force winds extended up to 70 miles and tropical storm-force winds another 160 miles.

The Hurricane Center warned could cause storm flooding of 3-5 feet above normal tides with 5-7 inches of rain that could cause flash floods and mudslides.

Earlier Tuesday, Ivan damaged at least 176 homes in Barbados and left many residents without water and electricity, according to relief director Judy Thomas. The Atlantis Hotel and Ocean Spray Hotel, just outside Bridgetown, the capital, lost part of their roofs.

In neighboring St. Vincent and the Grenadines, about 600 people sought shelter, at least 45 houses were damaged and two-thirds of the country was without power, officials said.

Airports, schools, government offices and most private businesses were closed on affected islands.

Ivan became the fourth major hurricane of the season on Sunday, coming hard on the heels of Hurricane Frances, which killed at least two people in the Bahamas and 14 in the U.S. states of Florida and Georgia.

---

Associated Press writer Eric Nurse in Barbados contributed to this report.

---


http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040908/D84VG7B80.html

Steph-
Can you reach anyone at Bayshore to find out if conditions are as bad as this sounds? This doesn't agree with info on SGU's home page. I'm one worried mom.
Thanks

Hi,
Can someone please help us by providing contact information for anyone living off-campus from SGU? My fiance lives off-campus with 3 other girls, and we have no news at all from her since Tuesday noon.

Thanks much.

More updated information from the Associated Press:

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlates...481391,00.html

I got this contact from bay shore:

Steph,

www.stormcarib.com

is a good site. We have been handling calls all night (not many) but
now
students are also calling. CRM just posted a message on our website.

Nothing new on valuemd website, will keep looking

Take care,
---

In the event you get calls, we have scheduled people to be in the NY
office
all night to answer any parent/family calls, and we have posted this
info
on the web. About 4:00 PM Tuesday the eye hit Grenada and we have lost
contact, we were told ahead of time they were going to turn off power
to
prevent fires and damage. We know that some homes in the area
suffered
damages, one dorm had a roof collapse but no one was hurt. I am home
now
but I am heading in at 4:00 AM EDT to handle any calls. We expect the
problems to remain a day or two even after the storm passes, due to
power
outages. We will keep the web updated, give us a call if you need more
information.

__________________
Steph
If you get a warning, put on yer manpants and stop whining about it.

as per my conversation with the bayshore.

1) the school will be chartering a flight into Grenada to bring in supplies that the chancellor is organizing.

2)some want to donate: if you do, contact 800 899-6337: debbie Beeman ext 246.

3) food and water ok for a few days (they're emptying University club).

4)SENIOR OFFICIALS AND RAs have been on campus the whole time. They were holed up just like students. Including the four of five Deans. The rumor that they got on the plane monday afternoon is not true (actually the word used in responce to my direct question about that is no publishable here) as per the school. Many students were with the faculty at the time.

5)There is wind and water damage to the campus buildings but the buildings are structurally sound via visual inspection. Engineers (probably from Trinidad) are being sent in to confirm. The majority of repairs it is anticipated, will involve window and roofing materials. University admin is "very pleased with how the structural buildings held up". One dorm did lose its roof. no one was hurt.

6)in spite of reports of looting, the contact the university has had with students suggests there has been none of this on campus. A liquor store off campus of course did have a robbery; glovers did open their doors to others but NOT UNDER THREAT. The word quoted to me was "there is real community spirit but people are nervous".

7)classes hope to be up and running monday.

8)the university is working with the US state department. A master list of students is being compiled and the US state department will confirm their safety.

9) the campus has opened available phone lines for students to call parents and notify family of safety. There are three phones so it will take a while. The students can call out; people shouldn't call in.

10) please call sgu as the phones were manned all night last night and probably tonight 1 800 899-6337- hit "zero".

11) unconfirmed report is 19 Grenadians lost their lives.

__________________
Steph
If you get a warning, put on yer manpants and stop whining about it.

How about the US Embassy in Grenada/Barbados? Anyone contacted them to make them aware that there are many Americans on the island that need help? Perhaps they can assist in sending in supplies.

Let us know if there is anything we can do here to help.

P

__________________
Jean Luc Picard
Academic Hospitalist/Assist. Professor of Medicine, Star Fleet Medical, Earth, United Federation of Planets
Borg-Certified... Resistance is Futile.

In Glock, We Trust... Everyone Else... Keep Your Hands Where I Can See Them.

http://www.odmp.org/search.php?searc...=2001&cause=27
http://www.nypdangels.com/wtc.htm
http://www.hampsteadnh.us/police/A%2...ica%20Died.htm
http://longmontpolice.com/MEMORIAM.HTM

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WEATHER/09/0....ap/index.html

__________________
Steph
If you get a warning, put on yer manpants and stop whining about it.

To the Student Government Association of St. George's University,

On behalf of the Student Government Association of the American University of the Caribbean and the student body, we would like to extend any assistance we can provide to the student body of SGU.

We are currently working on soliciting clothing donations as well as school supplies from AUC students to send to Grenada should a decision be made for classes to continue or for students to remain on island.

We are anxiously awaiting news and our thoughts and prayers are with all of you.

Warmest Regards,

__________________
holoPRESencephalic
President - SGA (9/2004 - 4/2005)
American University of the Caribbean SOM

http://www.aucmed.edu
http://www.aucsga.org
http://www.auchonorsociety.org