Border Angels Leads Caravans with Relief Supplies to Quake Victimsi n Baja

[Liberty Belle]

Source: East County Magazine

By Miriam Raftery

April 9, 2010 (San Diego) – Border Angels, a San Diego-based organization, is seeking donations of nonperishable food, clothing, tents, sleeping bags, water and other vital supplies for earthquake victims left homeless with no electricity or water in Baja California, Mexico. In some areas, flooding caused by the quake has compounded the misery. "Water sprouting from the ground has sulfur," Estela Flores told East County Magazine.


Relief supplies collected by Border Angels for Mexico quake victims
Border Angels has already shuttled some items to Mexico and will lead additional caravans on future dates. Monetary donations are also being accepted.

Read more: http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/node/3108

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I am the author of this story. The photos and stories I'm hearing are heartbreaking; this is terribly under reported.

A little known fact about earthquakes is that they can cause the water table to rise. Here in San Diego, some water tables rose two feet due to the quake in Mexico. Now we are learning that in the Cucapa area, home to indigenous Indians in Baja, sulfur-tainted water has "sprouted" from the ground to flood homes and make them uninhabitable.

Around 25,000 people are currently displaced from their homes in Baja due to the quake, and 5,000 of those will need to be permanently relocated, Mexican authorities are now saying.

[boppers]

1. Americans helping Americans.

K&R

[Liberty Belle]

2. Well, actually the Cucapa Indians are in Mexico,

But it's still good to see Americans going there to bring help. The Indians in Mexico are even more impoverished than non-casino tribes here. Some of them subsist by selling baskets for a pittance that take many hours to make; without those sales they would not have enough food to eat, according to a YouTube video interview with some of them.

Construction of the border fence has been hard on the Indians in Baja, too, limiting their ability to travel to the U.S. to sell their goods or visit family.

[boppers]

4. *headdesk*

What continent is Mexico part of?

Is is part of the Americas, perhaps?

Hence: Americans helping Americans.

[Liberty Belle]

3. Here's a related story on Cucapa Indians devasted by the quake in Mexico:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4338550&mesg_id=4338550

This is an impoverished tribe that relies on fishing; now roads are blocked so they can't fish, and their homes have been destroyed.