As Hurricane Matthew heads towards Rum Cay it’s hard to believe that it’s been one full year since Hurricane Joaquin ravaged this small community. For two days the category 4 hurricane hovered around the southeastern Bahamas offering 12 to 15 foot storm surges and relentless pounding. Rum Cay suffered severe flooding, downed trees, impassable roads, downed power lines and poles were reported across the island. The airport was flooded, and the government dock was and still is completely destroyed. This small community of 60 souls endured the worst damages from a hurricane in over 100 years.
Hurricane Joaquin - October 2, 2016
With your support and through the hard work of The Rum Cay Foundation we have made tremendous progress over the past year. Here is a highlight of what we accomplished together:
With the assistance of Brad Elliot of Banyan Air who generously offered us space in a hangar where we helped to coordinated a central location for donated supplies such as food, water, clothing, bug spray, generators & other urgent supplies. Volunteer pilots then donated their time & fuel to deliver these supplies to Rum Cay.
With the assistance of YachtAid Global and Jeremy Beller of M/Y Enchanted Lady we coordinated to ship a huge supply of the donated items directly to Rum Cay.
With your generous donations we were able to supply each Rum Cay household with one appliance and mattress. Check out our Hurricane Update post for more pictures & details.
With the help of Susan & Oscar Davis, the Rum Cay community and Waterkeepers Bahamas we successfully collected and exported 5000 plastic water bottles that were sent to Nassau and properly recycled.
Again with the help of YachtAid Global and local electrician Josie Harding we were able to set up a solar powered water filtration system.
Rum Cay Hurricane/Community Shelter
As we look into the future there are many projects that the Foundation has in mind to further our mission. We are currently focusing on the most important one which is the Rum Cay Hurricane/Community Shelter. This is an organically grown project initiated and funded by local residents & expats. The main frame of this building is standing, however, it is still in need of being closed in. This building will serve not only as a secure hurricane shelter but also as a much needed community space allowing Rum Cayans a place to gather, educate and celebrate their community.
Rum Cay Community/Hurricane Shelter
Our Pledge
We are committed to assisting the local residents in finishing the hurricane shelter/community center. In doing so, our focus is to shore up the building by purchasing doors and windows so that they have a closed structure which can be used in the case of a storm. In the future, much more needs to be purchased such as plumbing, a cistern and more, but we would like the first phase to be achievable in the short term.
The board has committed to matching your funds up to $10,000, so for every $1.00 contribution, we will contribute $1.00. This ensures that your donation will go a long way to helping the residents of Rum Cay.
You can use the website to make a donation by credit card here . Please remember that your donations are fully tax deductible as we are a US based 501c3.
Or send checks to:
The Rum Cay Foundation
33 Witherspoon Street
Princeton, NJ 08542
Together we hope you will continue to join us in our mission of enhancing the standard of living, education and general well-being of the community of Rum Cay. We couldn’t do any of this without your support.