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Published November 3, 02
Everyone here is very surprised at the response time of the Mexican Govt. in dealing with this disaster. The army has moved in a large field kitchen, located in the primary school in the center of town, and are serving 3 free meals a day. People from Tepic, Puerto Vallarta and other town are driving the streets handing out packages of food and clothing. About 25% of the city now has power and the power commission is still working 24 hrs. a day.
It will probably be another 10 days for all of San Blas to have power restored. Linemen from all of Mexico are here working in very hot sun in the day and swarms of mosquitos in the morning and evening. San Blas is famous for mosquitos, but even the people here have never seen mosquitos like this. Most of the linemen are from other states and are not use to this much sun, so their faces are red and all are tired.
Water was restored Friday, but there are still many broken lines so it is on and off. But at least there was enough for people to wash clothes and bedding. There is some phone service restored.
As always the people with the least are suffering the most. Tarps or plastic cover parts of houses to give them a room to sleep in but with the bugs the way they are the don’t get much rest. Some people are still in Tepic staying in schools or churches because they have no home to go back to. There is talk of govt. loans to rebuild, but many of these people don’t have papers for their houses and probably will have trouble getting a loan if it is available.
Almost all of the downtown businesses are reopened and there is some sense of things returning to normal.
Many of you have asked if there is a local group accepting donations. I’ve checked around and don’t know of any. I have a checking acct. in the U S and could take donations through that and distribute the money here to individuals or a local group if it is formed. The bank here is still closed and sending money to Mexico is slow sometimes. I’d like your feedback on this idea.
If you have friends you are worried about or questions, write <tnsanblas@yahoo.com> or call me. My phone # is 011-52-323-285-0986
Tom
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