Shortly after deadly Hurricane Beryl made landfall near St. Lucia, a Wausau nonprofit is heading to the area to help run an educational camp on the Eastern Caribbean island nation.
Wausau resident Christine Daniels, executive director of Good News Project, is flying to Saint Lucia Wednesday with her two daughters to volunteer at the two-week math camp. Daniels said the organization was monitoring Hurricane Beryl over the weekend — alongside their local manager on the island, Noella Sankar — and ultimately decided to proceed with the trip after the hurricane began moving west of Saint Lucia.
“They did have the electricity and the water turned off for probably a half a day yesterday, but it seems like most of the areas are back up and running again,” Daniels said.
Saint Lucia is slightly north of Carriacou Island in Grenada, where the hurricane first made landfall.
Currently, Beryl is heading away from Saint Lucia, but the island was hampered over the weekend with strong winds and heavy rainfall. As of Tuesday morning, the island’s government has issued an all-clear on storm advisories, though schools in the area will remain closed until Wednesday.
Good News Project, founded more than four decades ago, has been running volunteer trips to Saint Lucia since its inception. This is the second year in a row the organization is working with the island government to run the program, after last year’s camp saw many of the student participants’ math exam scores increase, Daniels said.
Approximately 180 students between 15 and 16 years old will participate in the camp this year, according to Toni Schmitt, a project manager for the organization.
The camp’s site is atop a hill, so the hurricane could have wiped out the building if it had hit Saint Lucia more closely, Daniels said. Organizers were also monitoring whether instructors would still be able to fly in for the program, including a professor from Barbados.
Many Saint Lucians — including camp participants — also have friends and family in the surrounding Caribbean islands, Daniels added.
“I sent an email to a group of them yesterday, saying, ‘I’m thinking of you. You’re in our thoughts and our prayers,’” Daniels said, “and they said, ‘Thank you, but now our hearts are turned towards our other islands.”
What and where is Hurricane Beryl?
Beryl has shocked meteorologists after intensifying from a tropical depression to a major hurricane in under 48 hours.
On Monday, Beryl escalated into a Category 5 storm — the earliest in the year the Atlantic has ever seen a Category 5 storm. Climate experts have warned that much warmer than normal ocean temperatures in the Atlantic will make this hurricane season especially dangerous.
The hurricane is currently ripping through the Caribbean Sea. After causing at least three deaths and destroying entire communities in Grenada on Monday morning, Beryl is expected to hit Jamaica on Wednesday and the Cayman Islands on Thursday.
It is currently unclear if and how the hurricane will affect the U.S. and the Gulf Coast.
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