Tragedy in El Salvador

Friends and family,I am very excited to get to Michigan this coming Tuesday. For those of you that do not know, I will be in town for two weeks. I cannot wait to be around friends and family, I have wanted to visit will all of you for so long now. Obviously, you all know that I have been a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural El Salvador working in a poor, coffee planting community. Very early last Sunday morning tragedy struck in my part of the country. I know that the news has focused a lot on the destruction and pain that Salvadorans are going through right now. I wanted to take some take to inform you on everything that happened to me, my community and the region of Vera Paz, El Salvador.

The events have affected me very much, leaving me very scared and at times quiet in thought. While I am at home, I really would like to focus on other subjects just because it is too hard to talk about it. For that, I thought I would send you exactly what happened, so that when we are all together we can focus more on what we can do to help, rather than focus on what I went through.For those who don´t want to read the whole story, I will say that in one night, do to a large amount of rain, thousands of people have been left without homes, without food and water without clothes. Entire communities have been erased. Entire families have passed away. Crops that Salvadoran farmers use to feed their families are ruined.

The level of poverty is too high for these people to help themselves. They depend on help from outside, and they need this help now more than ever. Many of you have already helped me, and I would not ask again for donations if it were not so important. I have five months left in El Salvador, and I will use working in this part of the country helping however I can. Your donations will literally help people survive these next few months while they start over from scratch.



A picture taken of Chinchontepec, where I live. My community is on the left hand side of the volcano, more than half way up. It is so beautiful, but now very scarred. What looks to be a road formed, is a landslide that devastated a neighboring pueblo, Vera Paz.

The following is my account: Saturday evening at 5pm, I arrived in my community, Santiago de Chile, with a good friend, Diana, to give a Sexual Education Talk with the local teenagers. When we arrived, there was too much rain to have the meeting, so I canceled it, and Diana and I had a normal evening with my family. We drank coffee, talked with the neighbors and enjoyed a typical Salvadoran winter night. After a wonderful evening with rain, we then went to bed.

A picture of the road leading into my community with four feet of mud covering it. People from my community for the first time descovering what had happend.

At 1am, while sleeping I was quickly woken up by very loud noises coming from my side door. The noises we so loud that I thought a group of men were breaking in to rob or do harm to us. I jumped to my feet and hit the light switch – there was no light. I found myself in the dark of the night standing in 3 feet of mud. Within two seconds of the door breaking open, my whole house was filled with it. I grabbed Diana by the arm and pulled her towards the door. While in my house, struggling through the mud, we had to climb over smaller sized boulders. We tried to go through the front door, it would not open. We had to fight the mud pouring in and climb over more boulders to reach the next door. As we reached the door that was opened by the weight of mud and rock, I saw that our latrine and 5 foot wall around our house no longer existed.

From above I could see that the volcano had in fact turned into a landslide and it was passing through the heart of my community, two feet outside of my door. Diana continued tripping, trying to fight the current of the landslide, dragging her with one hand, tracing the edge of the house with the other, we eventually got to the other side where we met the rest of my family. We were in the porch, Diana passed me her cell phone that she grabbed on our way out and I started to call for help. There was no signal. We moved to our neighbors and I started hours of communication with Peace Corps Security.

With all the chaos, men and women cleaning and salvaging items from houses, many kids were running around this very dangerous area as if it was a playground.

From 2am to 6pm, Diana, myself and 15 other community members were in this porch sitting and waiting. No one could see, all we did was sit and wait. Four long hours of our silence, interrupted by the unforgetable sound of boulders sliding towards us - it was a nightmare.At 6pm, the sun finally out, the rain stopped. Everyone left from the porch to access the damage. My house had 4 feet of mud in it and tons of boulders ranging from knee high to almost half my size. The community started cleaning. Peace Corps would not let me leave my site because they were afraid of more landslides along the road. So we stayed, cleaning, distracting ourselves and hoping that it would not rain again. The rain started once again.

Diana, a civil engineer, took a walk around my community accessing the damage. She came back to my house where I was and told me that it was too unsafe to stay. I would around my community to see for myself what had happened. Our football field no longer exists. The road out, completely blocked. By the side of my house, 2 feet from a door – a ravine 30 feet wide and 20 feet deep. This newly formed ravine passes my house, crosses the street and leads to three houses which are now completely buried by rock and dirt.

A picture of the Catholic Church. My house is located directly behind it. Unfortunately, we could not get closer to take a picture. The landslide passed the left side of the church and my house, crossing the road and barrying three houses below.

At 10:30am, Peace Corps determined that it was too dangerous for me to stay in my community. I talked to a large group of people asking them to come with me, telling them that it would be too dangerous during the night, with a chance of rain and loose boulders up above the community. Diana and I said goodbye to everyone, no one came with us. This was very hard to do. I had fished out a par of soccer cleats in my room buried in the mud. Diana was wearing them. A fifteen year old girl from my community ran up to us with a par of tennis shoes and told us, ´I really want to come with you but my mom is staying her so I have to as well´ - she gave Diana the shoes to put on and walked away crying.

Two local girls walking the road to see the damage.

Three hours later, walking down the volcano on the only road, climbing over and around ten landslides, we reached the nearest city where we waited for a Peace Corps car to pick us up. From the city, Zacatecoluca to San Salvador, we witnessed and 90 kilometers of destruction. Bridges destroyed, houses washed away and knocked down of the road and floods that have ruined crops.

Hours before these area was forest. Now covered with feet of mud and boulders, it is very unstable ground.


Not just trees, but parts of the forest were ripped out of the ground and thrown into the river of mud and rock.

What looks to be a uphill road, is actually one of three landslide that passed through Santiago de Chile. At the peak, where it formed, it also turned to the left and passed two feet away from my house, knocking down a retention wall, latrine and barrying my neighbors housesthis is what I woke up to.


On the right hand side you can see the stone road. Here, a quarter of it sunk down while a landslide passed through.
Days later, with Peace Corps El Salvador´s Director, I took a trip to Vera Paz, El Salvador. This is a smaller city that I know very well. My community is on the volcano, I pass through Vera Paz to get to my community. When we arrived, I did not recognize the area. Helicopters flying over head, hundreds of people working, watching, crying - we had to put masks on to block the smell of bodies. Streets were filled with boulders. I walked through the bolder filled streets with my head higher than the level of the roofs of the houses that are still standing. The owners were still trying to dig there way back in to look for bodies and valuable goods. The area closest to the volcano, now a large rock garden, literally no trace of life, houses, nothing… All erased by a few hours of rain and a massive landslide.

This is the first shot of San Vicente. This community is 45 minutes from me in bus. I live in the upper right hand corner of the volcano. What started where I live, built of speed and hit this area of El Salvador at night, without warning. Survivors of this area said that houses exploded.

This is the road from San Vicente to my community. On the side of the road, where there use to be houses, now are only boulders, some bigger than cars.

We passed by the local health clinic where a woman my age was talking with doctors. Her mother´s body was just identified. It was found 25 kilometers away from Vera Paz. She was in the road trying to escape when the landslide hit. There have been many deaths, and many more missing people. The government will not be reconstructing San Vicente because it is too dangerous, no one will ever be able to live there again.

A road through the community, now a river bed. The goverment has said that they will not clean up all the boulders and mud. The river has now found, the path of the landslide, from now on anytime there is rain, an earthquake or another landslide, everything will direct itself here.
My community, Santiago de Chile is very lucky. Diana and I laterally escaped death, if we would have hesitated longer, we would have drowned while trying to escape. During the emergency there was too much adrenaline to be scared, only now am I coming to terms with what has happened. With 7,000 people without homes, food, clothes, the country literally is in crisis. My community has been left behind. There has been no access for trucks and not enough deaths for emergency crews to place enough focus on their needs. As of today, two helicopters have landed dropping off food but it is not enough. This is where all of us can make a difference. There are 500 people in my community waiting for food, water, clothes, anything at all.

A typical house in El Salvador touched destroyed within seconds.

While I am home, I will be trying to make presentations to Rotary Clubs and other groups to raise money. I also will be asking for donations from us. We, as a team, can literally save my community. Without our donations, I truly fear that smaller children and elderly people in my community will not survive the next few months. Any donation can help. I have started in San Salvador. Friends have been collecting clothing, shoes, food and water to give. Stateside, money donations will be used to do the same here. Before arriving in the US, Peace Corps is going to be driving me to my community to take a census of basic needs, and I will use your donations to make sure these people have the basics needed to survive these next few very hard months.

When we arrived, families were trying to enter these houses to look for loved ones who had disappeard.

This was a house where Peace Corps Volunteers stayed during training. The body of the mother was found 25 kilometers away.

Shocking how much earth fell apon this small pueblo.

Many locals at still trying to live in their houses on streets just like this one.

School just ended for the year. Local teenagers taking a break from relief work.

The local school.

There was so much mud that people have to get around the pueblo like this.

It is very hard for me to talk about everything that has happened, I am still very shaken up from the near death experience. I wanted to send the story to all of you so before getting to Michigan so that when we see each other we can begin to try to help. Don´t worry about me, I have so many wonderful friends and family that I will be fine, I am just worried sick about so many families here in El Salvador – let´s try to do as much as we can!

Please look at the photos, read my story again, look up Vera Paz on google. Please try to help me fundraise, talk with family and friends, give whatever you can. I will be spending the next 5 months try to do whatever I can – it will not be enough, but it is a start. Anyone that can help, I promise you that I will make sure your donations go directly to the families that need it.

You can also click on this link to watch a video filmed in Santiago de Chile, my community. A reporter walked in from Zacatecoluca, using the same road that I used to escape. It is in Spanish, for those of you that don´t understand the video, the reporter is saying that my community has been left behind. The community without food, water, clothes and some families without houses, he is asking that people start helping. During the video, when the focus on the white chruch, hit pause, and look behind the church. The house directly behind it is where I live. The door that you can see is where Diana and I escaped.

http://www.esmitv.com/vernoticia.aspx?id=2845

When I have everything completely organized, I will be sending account information so that donations can be sent. I thank you all so much and ask that you add the people of La Paz and Vera Paz to your payers.

I love you all and cannot wait to see you,

Jimbo