The season started well with a variety of crops. Most farmers will double crop; either corn and beans or millet and beans. This season was not different. Either corn or millet, the hybrid we use would mature in three months. A lot of those farms were coming to maturity as hurricane Sandy hit. The millet and beans were still far from being ready. The corn stocks were just being formed. The wind blew both corn and millets down and washed away the beans. Now rats and dogs are eating the just formed corn stalks.
There is little we might have been able to do to prevent the damages caused by Sandy. But as a hurricane it came upon us almost unexpectedly. We often start getting warning of coming hurricanes as they form on the coast of Africa and move through the Lesser Antilles and into the Caribbean. Sandy emerged from the coast of Panama and moved rapidly north. Neither did we anticipate its size. Since its trajectory was west of Haiti, we thought we were safe. There has not been a similar storm in terms of wind force and rain in the last 30 years.
In the midst of the disaster, we have reason to rejoice: no lives were lost as a direct result of the storm. It is in the months to come, when farmers should be harvest their field and reaping the fruits of their labor, that the pain is going to be felt.
Please add Haiti to your prayers for those affected by Sandy.
Covenant World Relief is responding to Hurricane Sandy here in the US! Click here to give.
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