Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Amphibious ARGO supports food distribution in Costa Rica

After hearing of the devastating flood in Costa Rica in mid October 2007, Erik Viktor Dannau of Swampbusters SA decided to help the stranded people of Filadelphia. Erik, along with his amphibious ARGO Tractor, organized four food distribution trips to flooded areas that were inaccessible to traditional rescue vehicles. 

During his various humanitarian missions Erik was surprised to see very little help from the Red Cross and other large organizations.

The amphibious ARGO 8x8 Tractor 750 EFI was a tremendous help during the first three-day rescue operation as it was able to go straight from land into the flooded areas without vehicle preparation. The ARGO’s open design concept made it very easy to distribute food and other items.

Don Carlos and Alexandra Trembley supported Erik’s efforts on two of the four trips to Filadelphia. Carlos and Alexandra contributed by organizing two benefit concerts to raise money in order to buy more food. They also joined Erik in distributing some of the donations.

After being shocked by the total lack of help he saw in the Filadelphia flood, Erik plans to create an organization to assist in emergencies, education and other humanitarian operations.

A video has been posted on You-Tube showing the third trip of the operation using the amphibious ARGO Tractor. It was shot for Swampbusters SA by the local Cable TV channel, Canal 36. Some clips were also featured on the local news.

Check it out now!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_FCDY81vCMI


Their Efforts from the Beginning

On the first of many rescue trips, Erik Viktor and some local men ventured for miles through flooded villages, sugar cane fields, and along broken dykes to rescue workers who have been cut off the world without food and water for several days.  The search nearly led to Erik’s demise when he almost fell off a dyke at night into the crocodile infested raging Tempisque River. Although, this near death experience did not deter Erik! He loaded the ARGO with goods and decided to go back and help out for the next few days.

Soon after Don Carlos and Alexandra Tremblay heard of the devastation they decided that they needed to do something to help out. The pair organized a benefit concert at Kim Cropper's house to raise donations for the people of Filadelphia.

The next day they joined efforts with Erik Viktor (captain of the missions), who is the official Distributor of the ARGO in Central America. With the help of the amphibious 8 wheel ARGO Tractor, Erik distributed his own collection of food and the donations from Carlos’s concert to individual houses.

The question was: Where do we go with the goods?
The answer was: Where there is water and the ARGO will take us.
 
The ARGO was the answer as they took it fully loaded with food and goods into the first flooded “Barrio” (block) of Filadelfia. No bureaucracy. Just action. They were sure that the goods were getting to those that needed them most.

As you may already know or have guessed the ARGO is fully amphibious and can thus operate in flooded areas. As it has no roof it makes it very easy to distribute food and other items. It is also an amazing all-terrain machine that literally stops for nothing. The ARGO has a low “social” profile and unlike a big SUV is better accepted by people whom are themselves living in misery and poverty and who have just lost everything they had in the floods.
 
Erik, Alexandra and Carlos were shocked that once again they didn’t see a single humanitarian organization around for the second day and operation in a row. It would seem that the latter preferred to go to the cozy “alberges” rather than into the dirty flooded areas were the really poor lived.
 
The problem here is that many people preferred to stay in their flooded houses, as they were afraid of being robbed of the little they had left.
 
They spent the next three hours in beautiful weather - as it had cleared for the first time in weeks – floating in 1 to 1.5 meters of water among flooded houses and people distributing the goods our Flamingo, Potrero and Condega (Liberia) neighbors had so generously given.

The Devastation and Heartbreak
 
Alexandra, Carlos and Erik will never forget what they saw as some scenes were heartbreaking or simply too surreal to describe. One scene that struck the team was that of a wooden village house - halfway under water – where the veranda was being shared on one side by 3 dogs in line all barking and on the other side 10 chickens - again all side by side. It looked like a scene from a fairy tale except that this wasn’t one.
 
So far Erik Viktor had captained the operation – remember they were floating. Erik concentrated on safety and efficiency because of the conditions and the locals all around them grabbing the goods.
As they swam along the flooded residential streets and houses distributing the goods from one hotspot to the other they passed one house and noticed that this time – unlike the previous stops – the resident didn’t come to them. The man in his early thirties and his two small children were standing waist-deep in water – the kids barely holding their heads out of it – was staring at them with a very sad expression on his eyes. Right across was a lady in the same situation and again - what would seem – too ashamed to come to them. The permanent smile so typical of this region and continent was gone.
 
These are very proud people and they didn’t want to be seen this way. So the crew invited the group to join, which they did very shyly. After this moment Erik, Alexandra and Carlos just stopped as the horror and sadness of what they witnessed hit them.

Erik says, “I think the sight of any kid or human in such conditions is unbearable. So for a few minutes we just sat there in the ARGO bobbling about trying to put ourselves together to continue the job.”
 
Initially the residents of this village were rather reluctant to take anything from them, but as the news spread that these “gringos” (English speaking foreigners from different cultures) in their strange craft were really there to help things change.
 
When they left many residents came to the dry road where they had parked the car and trailer and saw them off with great cheers. It was a beautiful and very moving sight. In fact, Erik had to drop of Alexandra and Carlos in Belén then drive back past the Filadelfia entrance minutes later and the scene repeated itself. In their last and fourth trip when they didn’t use the ARGO they didn’t get such a reaction.
 
 Operation Filadelfia day 3
 
The success of their previous two operations and what they saw encouraged Erik Viktor, Carlos and Alexandra to organize another humanitarian trip into the area as soon as they would have more goods available.
 
Alexandra & Carlos thus organized another spontaneous fund-raising concert while Erik spent the day preparing the ARGO for another sortie by taking care of the organization of the distribution as well as the use of the ARGO or logistics. Erik also contacted Maxibodega, PALI, the Red Cross and the Emergency commission with NO results at all. Maxibodega/PALI (WALMART) does invite its customers to give goods they bought, but sends them all to San José 220 km away were they are redistributed to Filadelfia, which is just 25 km from Liberia. No wonder there was nothing in the flooded barrios!! Erik was amazed at the “efficiency” of the operation.
 
On the Thursday Erik loaded the ARGO onto the trailer and drove to Filadelfia with a truck and cameraman of Canal 36 following him. When he got there and whilst he was waiting for Alexandra, Carlos and their friend and driver Ruth, he did an amphibious ARGO demonstration in a flood-lake across one of the Filadelfia entrance roads.

The fourth trip to help the people of Filadelphia was entirely led by Erik Viktor with no ARGO.

The Amazing Amphibious Vehicle
 
As the cameraman filmed and Erik steered the ARGO across water, reed and tree trunks, a big new fire-brigade truck stopped and watched the operation. Talking to the person in charge minutes later he admitted that they really needed a vehicle like that as there were many areas and villages they hadn’t been able to reach. Bingo! Erik didn’t tell him, of course, that he had put the ARGO at the disposal of the Emergency commission for the past 9 days with no request for help coming from them.
 
The group drove to the nearest flooded areas, which were now miles away, in the area of Corolillo. There, José a local kid Erik knew guided them to the poorest areas, some of which were still flooded or the roads were so muddy that any vehicle other than the light 8 wheel drive ARGO would have gotten stuck.
 
The end of the road was flooded and looked like a big lake. On the other side were 5 or 6 families living in sheds. The water had receded hours earlier and now the houses were above the water, but they were still cut-off the world with no electricity, water and very little food.
 
The ARGO crossed it in minutes and they were able to distribute lots of necessities to all these families. They had been cut-off the world for close to 2 weeks! Needless to say the goods were welcome and very well appreciated!
 
Mission Complete!

The damage and misery they saw was heartbreaking. The water may be gone for the moment, but the damage will be there for months to come. Why does it have to hit the poorest again and again? This time the words “ si dios quiere” (if god wills) didn’t seem appropriate here.
 
They had relatively few goods left so they chose to distribute them to the worst hit and poorest of the poor. Alexandra and her football field sized heart acted like a mother to them. Mother Theresa has just found a good back up for her work.

As a result of this mission Erik Viktor has decided to create an association to respond to these kinds of emergencies, as well as assist kids and adults in need of education.
In Costa Rica, the ARGO is used mainly as a tractor in “Fincas” or farms or for exploration and now rescue.
 
*The photographs show Alexandra, Ruth, Carlos and Erik and a local kid named José distributing. Note the wet mud in some areas were there had been water hours before. Water recedes very quickly once the rain stops but the damage remains.

Thank you Erik Dannau for supplying ODG with this wonderful story. www.swampbuster.org