Words and Photos by Thomas Tomczyk

When on Thursday morning Hurricane Wilma found itself 200 miles due north of Guanaja, its size expanded from a 250 mile diameter to 400 miles with its outer rims overlapping Roatan. While the outward, counter clock swashes of the hurricane battered the northern and western shores of the Bay Islands, the south and eastern sides remained out of harms way.
After 36 hours of hard rain, life was returning back to normal in Coxen Hole and French Harbour. Meantime West End, West Bay and Punta Gorda were going through its worst moments. Most people were caught off guard by the sudden escalation in waves and wind. "Everyone said we're going to get the tail, but this storm has two heads," said Kevin Wesley, charter boat captain from West End. In anticipation of worsening weather several boat owners moved their boats from West End to piers in Flowers Bay and Brick Bay.
By midday there was no rain and people ventured outside their homes and hotel rooms in search of water, food and news. Debris, fallen palm trees and boats littered whatever was left of West End road. There was no running water and only a few places had generator power.
On Wednesday night, the Purple Turtle restaurant ran out of beer, most West End residents went across the street. With its own generator, fully stocked, enclosed kitchen, and supply of beer Blue Channel restaurant was the only one open and served as a refuge for people looking for a hot meal and little bit of company.
Still, spirits were high. People were smiling, joking and helping one another. And there were emergencies that needed help all around. When a 500-gallon butane tank, started leaking gas and begun floating, several people took it out of the stormy water. A dozen people helped to beach to safety boats tied-up next to Lighthouse point. A two person deepwater gliding submarine belonging to Karl Stanley got loose and was anchored to shore. By Thursday midday the Half Moon Bay Cabins dock supporting the bigger, three-person Stanley sub was leaning in the waves, its access walkway completely gone and future uncertain.
By late afternoon the wind and waves strengthened. In West Bay wind gusts reached around 60 miles-an-hour and waves off West End point and Mangrove Bight point reached 40 feet. West Bay beach disappeared under the surf and two of its docks were destroyed, other two damaged. Sueño del Mar building lost part of its structure and Foster's building was cut-off from the island. "We tried to save everything we could, but the water washed over the walkway," said Marie-Claude Pieriehumbert, a salesperson at Sueño Del Mar.
"It's worst than Mitch," said Lily Tatum, manager of Casa Calico, a West End hotel that lost a $6,500 dock. According to Tatum during Mitch only Fosters and Seagrape Plantation lost their docks. With Wilma, hardly any dock was left undamaged. "What can you do? No one got hurt. No one is missing," said Jeff Kuken, owner of Casa Calico.
West End got pounded. Its infrastructure severely damaged: water and several lines were broken, septic tanks and leach fields were exposed. Power line poles foundations were exposed and in several places the West End road eroded to the point of being impassable.
The power of the storm was both destructive and fascinating to West End residents who took souvenir photos of themselves with the background of huge waves, streets littered with boats and debris. "I think it's just beautiful. We even got to dive yesterday [in Brick Bay]," said Bert Lary, 60, a West End tourist from Houston who came to Roatan for a week long holiday.
Few businesses decided to board-up their doors and windows. Mayan Princess placed a few sandbags in front of its palm trees, but too little avail. Luna Beach in West End lost its dock and the resort's employees were scrabbling to salvage as much lumber as possible. The structure wasn't insured, but Chuck Aberle, the resort's owner, tried to stay up-beat. "Our dock needed rebuilding anyway," he said smiling. Palm trees uprooted by wind and water littering the beaches. "This is the worst I've seen it in almost four years," said Aberle.
Dr. Andy Gygi, who purchased West End's Bungalow 7 less than a year ago had even bigger problems on his mind. Forty foot waves began battering the walls of his oceanfront resort on Wednesday. At 9pm Gygi with his wife evacuated their house and resort. "I've seen how fast a storm surge can happen and decided to leave," said Gygi, an ex Key West resident, who believes that two of his four Bungalow 7 buildings and the bar will be a total loss. As waves were beating and spilling into the resort's walls, the remains of the bar: furniture, grills, and lumber floated inside its gates. "When I moved here I thought I was far enough south and west not to see a hurricane," said Gygi.
Seven years ago 30-year-old Barrio Birinche in Mangrove Bight survived hurricane Mitch by heeding advance warnings. Wilma gave no such courtesy and in the middle of the night on Wednesday, 22 Birinche families abandoned their homes when the water reached their doorstep. The storm surge reached eight feet above sea level. People took shelter at the two classrooms in West End Elementary School and at the nearby Church of God.
On Friday morning, while wind and surf were still hitting West End hard, around 30 municipal workers came with picks and shovels to clean-up the mess left by Wilma's tail. They piled garbage, stabilized eroding road and drained salt water pools left by the storm. "We can't afford to waste time. We'll be back in business by Monday," said Mayor Hynds.
Some West End businesses worked hard to re-open that Friday. Captain Van's scooter rental was completely inundated with sea water that came over the West End road. "[To stop the water from coming] was like putting a finger in a dike," said Murray Russ, the business's owner. The next day Captain Van's staff dug a ditch to drain the water and brought 15 barrels of sand to raise the ground.
In the end, the lack of disaster preparedness on the island was exposed not by a Hurricane, but by its tailwind. "This was no hurricane. This was just a bad Northern," said Mayor Hynds. Few people sandbagged, or boarded-up their property. Many scrambled to get their boats out of the water at the last minute when the waves were already dangerously strong.
Also the authorities had not announced, or decided on shelter locations thought the islands in case the Hurricane did hit the island. There was no sandbags provided to the public, or fuel storage for emergency vehicles and the island was left without fuel for five days. It was everyone for themselves.
Still, affects of Hurricane Wilma was not all bad. According to Jennifer Keck, Marine biologist from Anthony's Key Resort, the storm had a positive effect on the Bay Islands reefs. "The same thing happened with Mitch. The reef got scoured and a bleaching effect took place," said Keck. "Flesh eating algae covering the reef in warm water were washed off." According to Keck, the biggest damage the reef suffered during Wilma was the run-off due to intense rain.
In Punta Gorda, wind and waves hit the north shore town hard and displaced piles of sand that were its unfinished beach project. A dozen houses in lost their roofs, but most people there were smiling. "We have a great beach now," said Tito Leiva, a local community leader.

The issue of having a blood bank is complex as a blood transfusion and falls in Honduras under the jurisdiction of Honduran Red Cross. Still, the foundation expressed desire to work through the Honduran Red Cross to acquire the blood bank on the island. "If a hospital like D'Antoni has its own blood bank, then I don't see why we can't have one here," said Dr. Gomez.
Hyde said that the foundation has a goal to provide low cost medical care and in order to do that additional sources of income will need to be found. The UCC wants to establish alliances with clinics and private physicians throughout the island to share resources and refer patients to primary care doctors and specialists.
During the meeting, people whose work and donations made the foundation a reality were recognized. Recognition was given to Pastor Roberto Brown for his dynamic Spanish translation of the presentation. However, the key to the project was a donation of five acres of land close to French Harbour Adventist School by Rita Silvestri-Morris. Several people stood up and volunteered their help and advice right there and then. Clark Johnson, director of Roatan's Hondutel, has offered to install a telephone line to the UCC. Dr. Gomez volunteered to donate Lps. 5,000 monthly towards the foundation for a total up to Lps. 50,000.

If I had to select the qualifications that would enable persons to acquire the privilege of casting a vote, I would not base these requirements on race or color, neither would religion play a role in my decision. I would grant the right to vote to sentient, literate and fairly intelligent people, they would not have to be rocket scientists, but they would have to understand the importance of the process and they would have to possess the ability to make decisions based on reason and logic and not on sentiment. Most importantly they would have to be taxpayers (and I don't mean a sales tax payer), because in my opinion people that do not contribute to the wealth of a nation should have no rights when it comes to deciding its future.
Maybe we should make the poll tax a requirement again. Well so much for that, and I know that what I consider to be as a voter's utopia would probably be considered by others a politician's nightmare.
Would you let the crew on the back deck of your boat select your captain? Let's get back to reality and let us all turn out on the Novembers 27 to vote. Let us not forget the real issues and try hard to refrain from personal attacks on our candidates and remember that a vote left blank is a complete waste of time and an insult to your dignity.
By the way, if your man wins don't come around later expecting gifts and favors in exchange for having been permitted by the law the privilege of casting your vote.

By Alfonso Ebanks

That's why it's important that in Honduras we develop these short, medium and long term plans. Once one of the parties wins the elections there will be a way of reaching compromise with others, particularly the use of our natural resources. This has to be both sustainable and planned.
B.I.V.: What about the lobster divers in particular.
P.L.: We have international agreements that we signed. If we can't live up to this the risks for Honduras are huge. We have a law and we have to respect it. If the law is in conflict with national interests we have to reform the law so it is not subordinated to just small interests.
B.I.V.: What are you planning about potentially, or limiting migration.
P.L.: We have talked about this issue a lot with our friends here on Roatan. Limiting the internal mobility of people within the country is a difficult subject and something that has to be analyzed in detail. On Roatan, a tourist destination important for all of Honduras, a way of life here should be treated differently. I don't have an answer what should be done, but it is important to create ways of resolving this problem through administrative means not to create a risk for tourism. The subject of security is fundamental. If you have a high concentration of population the vulnerability to crime becomes higher. We should create ways of controlling that the island doesn't receive a lot of unemployed.
B.I.V.: Bay Islands are on a transit route for drug trafficking. After several drug-busts in 2003 and early 2004, we have seen no results of drug policing on the island. How would you improve the situation?
P.L.: When Alvarez was security minister, we substantially increased drug seizures in the country. I know that this is continuing. We are on the bridge between Columbia and US. Bay Islands are one route, Mosquitia is another and to control drug trafficking we need international cooperation. It is important for all population to be vigilant because other than the risk of trafficking, there is a risk of developing drug addiction among the general public, something very dangerous. We need to attack the drug issue directly.
B.I.V.: Dou you think that for a small country with few educated people, presidential term limit of four years should be extended?
P.L.: What is more important is a vision of a country in which Hondurans find a compromise, because it's impossible to have a party without an absolute majority in congress, to change anything. What causes a problem is not the four year limit. What is the problem is that each government comes and changes trying to pursue a politics of government, not politics of the state. We need to have a stability of direction that transcends the politics of individual governments. The reform of some individual articles in the constitution is practically impossible to change, especially in the case of fundamental ones: 375 and 376.
B.I.V.: You want to reinstate the death penalty. Did you find support for this idea among Bay Islands politicians?
P.L.: I'll tell you what it is all about. For example in El Progresso a whole family was killed: father, mother was tortured and decapitated. Her organs were dragged-out. The daughter was decapitated as well. This is the type of crime in which I maintain my personal attitude of having a death penalty for. The human rights organizations don't agree with my position, but this [issue] will go to congress and have to pass with required majority votes. If this won't succeed in front of congress it will appear as a referendum issue. People will have a chance to decide in these clear cases how to apply justice. I haven't talked about this with local politicians. This is my very personal opinion. I think the people in cases of these abominable, satanical crimes will decide that they want [the death penalty].

Read past issues of
Bay Islands VOICE

No. 4
May 8 2003

Vol2 No. 2
Jan.29 2004

Vol2 No. 3
Feb.12 2004

Vol3 No. 9
September 2005

Vol3 No. 10
October 2005