Tom goes to aid of St lucians

A Glastonbury man has been delivering emergency humanitarian aidto the hurricane-hit Caribbean island of St Lucia.

Tom Lay is working in St Lucia with international disaster reliefcharity ShelterBox after Hurricane Tomas struck the island leavinghundreds of people in desperate need.

Hurricane Tomas slammed into St Lucia's shores on October 31causing the worst damage the country has ever known.

Torrential rain lasted for more than 14 hours, causing chaosacross the country and triggering a series of deadly landslides.

Tom, a highly-trained volunteer response team member for thecharity ShelterBox, is coordinating the relief effort in St Lucia.

80 ShelterBoxes have been sent to the island. Each large, greenbox contains emergency shelter and lifesaving supplies for familieswho have lost everything in a disaster.

These include a specially designed disaster relief tent for anextended family, water storage and purification equipment, blankets,cooking utensils, a basic tool kit, a children's activity pack andother vital items.

Tom, a professional photographer by trade, travelled to thecountry last Sunday with 50 ShelterBoxes which were flown to StLucia on an empty Virgin Atlantic passenger plane heading to theCaribbean to rescue stranded holiday-makers.

He drove through the night from the charity's base in Cornwall toensure the aid reached the plane which was departing from LondonGatwick Airport.

Working with local Rotarians, the St Lucian Red Cross and NEMO(National Emergency Management Office) Tom, who has also worked inHaiti, Chile and Brazil this year, was able to begin distributingthe first load of aid less than 24 hours after he arrived incountry.

"There's a huge, unreported need in St Lucia," he said. "In theremote areas there's massive damage. The sheer volume of water hascaused devastation St Lucia hasn't seen in a generation.

"In a village called Fond St Jacques, a landslide wiped outhouses and tore through the community. 125 people were sheltering inthe local church and five families here were the first people tomove into our tents which we set up at a nearby school.

"They were over the moon and couldn't believe we'd travelled sofar to help them.

"There's so much passion in the country and a desire to help. Wewouldn't have been able to move so quickly without the support ofRotary and the local government."