Elmhurst Resident Mark Dyer Has Completed His Second Disaster-relief Trip to Colombia

Elmhurst resident of the ShelterBox Response Team has recently returned home after his second trip to Colombia. He and the ShelterBox team were there to assess the need for emergency aid following flooding and landslides caused by one of the worst rainy seasons the country has suffered in decades.

The torrential rains have disrupted the lives of more than 325,000 people, destroying thousands of acres of farmland and hundreds of homes.

ShelterBox provides emergency shelter and life-saving supplies to disaster victims. Everything a family needs is distributed in a 120-pound green box: a disaster relief tent that will sleep 10, a stove, blankets and a water filtration system, mosquito netting and other survival tools, and even some items to keep children busy, like coloring books and crayons. Each box costs about $1,000.

The ShelterBox Response Team is a highly trained group of volunteers who deliver on-the-ground aid to survivors of natural and other disasters around the world. Dyer is the scouts coordinator with ShelterBox USA, the organization's American affiliate, headquartered in Sarasota, Florida.

Dyer traveled to Colombia last year, right after Thanksgiving, to assess the need for aid following widespread flooding that destroyed 28 of the country's 32 provinces. He also has deployed to Somaliland, Niger, traveled twice to Haiti following the devastating earthquake in 2010 and to Japan following the earthquake and tsunami earlier this year.

During this trip, Dyer visited families along the Magdalena River in the Magangue region, according to an article by ShelterBox USA. He also traveled to the town of Plato.

"Many of the homes are completely destroyed or have a few feet of standing water in them," Mark said in the article. "Many families have already moved a mile or so downriver, to an area called Carmen del Magdalena, to find dry land."

Mark met with several families who had lost their homes in flooding last year. They have been living in a ShelterBox tent ever since.

Dyer and Per Dahlstrom, who is with the Canadian-based ShelterBox Response Team, met with Colombia’s National System for the Prevention and Attention of Disasters to identify the areas of greatest need for shelter and lifesaving supplies. 

Alf Evans, ShelterBox operations manager, said ShelterBox responded immediately to the disaster.

“Within 24 hours of the alert, contact was made with the SRT members, they were briefed on Colombia’s situation, and they arrived in Bogota early the next morning to assess the need,” he said. “We act fast, and we strive to reach families in the shortest time possible.”

ShelterBox also has teams responding in Turkey, following the successive earthquakes, and Thailand, following massive flooding throughout the country.

Individual tax-deductible donations to ShelterBox USA can be made on the ShelterBox website, by calling (941) 907-6036 or via text message. Send SHELTER to 20222 for a one-time $10 donation. Location and time specific donations cannot be accepted.