Vicente fled from his home as his neighbor’s home washed away.  Victoria stood on a table, pried a hole in her tin roof, and waited on her rooftop with her children while her home filled with mud.  Ronaldo’s home survived, though his pickup was buried up to the windows.  His neighbor was not so lucky, as the river charted a new course, about 15 feet wide, directly through two load-bearing walls of his house.  The damage was severe.  Destroyed were 65 homes, damaged were another 100, and 800 people where without homes.  Over 2000 people registered with authorities as having suffered some form of damage.

We’re picking up the pieces.  As Green As It Gets has led the clean-up efforts in our little corner of the planet, working with various local non-governmental organizations, the mayor, two town councils, a few private businesses, and several hundred local volunteers.  We’re cleaning houses, renting heavy equipment, controlling disease, providing medicine, collecting and distributing food and clothing, coordinating work teams and volunteers, organizing the town leadership, and plenty of odds and ends.  See some photos of our work here:

Your donations at work
Your donations following Hurricane Agatha have helped folks dig out by purchasing shovels and wheelbarrows, renting heavy equipment, and paying for the fuel that went into those machines.  You fueled the townsfolk by purchasing food and industrial kitchen equipment to keep both the homeless and the workers fed.  You paid for the things that others forgot about, like socks and underwear for people who owned only the clothes they were wearing when the landslide hit.  You paid for disease control, including tetanus vaccines, typhoid vaccines, training and materials to help reduce the risk of mosquito-born diseases.   You paid for cups and plates to be washed and reused by those receiving emergency meals, preventing 1500 styrofoam plates and cups from ending up in the landfill each day.  You purchased huge pots for cooking on an industrial scale, and purchased the propane for cooking.  You’ve donated over 100 bags of food to families who have returned to their home.  You’ve donated hundreds of pounds of clothing and thousands of pounds of food.  When the church needed new sinks to handle the daily washing needs of families without homes, you provided those sinks.   Thanks for all you’ve done.

Most of the mud has been moved from town.  All the roads are clear, and most of the houses are clear.  The causeway has been cleared.  The heavy cleaning is largely done.
We are just beginning the lighter cleaning, the scrubbing of floors and pressure washing of walls.

Reconstruction will begin shortly.  That means building houses, putting in new utilities, repairing walls and roofs, and building some short-term shelters.  It means building another nursery and planting many thousands more trees. We’ll be digging out the school site and preparing for school construction again.  Perhaps most notably, As Green As It Gets has been asked by the mayor to take responsibility for one of the five bridges that must be rebuilt.  

Start planning now to lead a work team to reconstruct the town.  We’re looking for teams of 5-15 people who want to lay concrete block, repair roofs, tie rebar, and otherwise get your hands dirty.  Our townspeople will put you up in their home and keep you fed if your team can provide the materials for reconstruction.  Contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if interested.

Click here to read more about what happened after the Tropical Storm Agatha