Sadly....Most Animals Perished

We tried to walk to as many secluded areas as we could. For the most part, we didn't go any further than 1.5km from the ocean shore, this is were we reached the areas of most destruction. The army had already sent a boat to these areas with crew and bulldozers. So as we trekked through the abandoned villages we would periodically pass a lone bulldozer making it's rounds.

It took everything we had to not think about getting leeches. The water we were trekking through was so warm and muddy, a perfect haven for those little guys! The ground was still very wet, much more so than the farm village we had visited the day before that remains caked in mud. In the coastal villages we were visiting this day, water was still flowing from high up in the mountains.

Don't be fooled by what looks like a smile on my face in this photo. At the moment this photo was taken I was trying to remove my foot and boot from the hole it had managed to sink into. That's an "Oh God please don't let me trip over myself and fall face first into this water" look on my face.

There wasn't much other assistance we could provide to these villages. We did bring several "gifts" with us like sugar and candy for the kids. The impact on animals in these areas was fatal. And an estimated 57% of the residents perished. From what we were seeing, close to 100% of homes were destroyed.

In light of this sad news, there still remains a good story: Stay tuned for photos of "Sula" the dog with a broken leg that our team rescued and saved....