Dear Friends of AIDG,
As many of you know the base city for the AIDG in Guatemala, Quetzaltenango, was just clobbered by Hurricane Stan.
New York Times Article: Flooding in Central America
So far all but two of our staff are all currently safe and accounted
for. But the city has been facing serious problems. One zone of the
city is submerged under 6 feet of water. Multiple bridges along main
transport routes into and out of the city, especially to the Pacific
coast were washed out. We are just emerging from a period of no
electricity, no gas, bare supermarkets, no communications, and we still
have no potable water. 3 blocks from the workshop the streets and park
were buried in at points 2 feet of mud and debris from a landslide
above the city.
We and our staff have been doing
what we can to help within the limits, digging out neighbors, repairing
burned out electrical wiring, lending tools and equipment. But as
things are stabilizing in the city it is becoming clear to us that
there is a much greater need for our services in currently cut off
rural communities.
One of our two current test
windmills, at the Chichaclan site, was up through the duration of the
storm (the other we had brought back to the shop for design
modification a few weeks ago), and it withstood category 1 hurricane
winds with no structural damage. There has been expressed interest in
obtaining more of these windmills, and a smaller transportable design
we have been testing, from development organizations working with
emergency relief in cut off communities. Unfortunately we currently
lack the available funds to buy the raw materials necessary to begin
the scale of production that would be required to meet this demand
(Roughly 6250 USD for 50 initial units). And we lack the funds to
obtain a vehicle necessary to transport these materials (Roughly 2000
USD).
We more than ever need your help and the
help of your friends, family, whoever you can think of that would be
interested. Our workshop is truly the only option in the region for
many of these communities to have quick access to low cost,
sustainable, emergency power. Please donate to help in our efforts, and
if you can please pass this message on to your friends, colleagues,
members of your church, synagogue, or mosque. We need your help to rise
to this disaster. You can donate on our website at www.aidg.org/donate.htm, or by check to:
AIDG Inc.
P.O. Box 104
Weston, MA 02493
Thank you in advance for your support. We will try and post pictures when the network connection permits.
Sincerely,
Peter Haas
CEO and Lead Tech, AIDG Inc.
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