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Mar 11, 2011 at 04:03 PM
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TOKYO – A ferocious tsunami unleashed by Japan's biggest recorded earthquake slammed into its eastern coast Friday, killing hundreds of people as it carried away ships, cars and homes, and triggered widespread fires that burned out of control.
Hours later, the waves washed ashore on Hawaii and the U.S. West coast, where evacuations were ordered from California to Washington but little damage was reported. The entire Pacific had been put on alert — including coastal areas of South America, Canada and Alaska — but waves were not as bad as expected.
In northeastern Japan, the area around a nuclear power plant was evacuated after the reactor's cooling system failed and pressure began building inside.
Police said 200 to 300 bodies were found in the northeastern coastal city of Sendai, the city in Miyagi prefecture, or state, closest to the epicenter. Another 178 were confirmed killed, with 584 missing. Police also said 947 people were injured.
The magnitude-8.9 offshore quake triggered a 23-foot (seven-meter) tsunami and was followed for hours by more than 50 aftershocks, many of them more than magnitude 6.0. In the early hours of Saturday, a magnitude-6.6 earthquake struck the central, mountainous part of the country — far from the original quake's epicenter. It was not immediately clear if this latest quake was related to the others
Friday's massive quake shook dozens of cities and villages along a 1,300-mile (2,100-kilometer) stretch of coast, including Tokyo, hundreds of miles (kilometers) from the epicenter. A large section of Kesennuma, a town of 70,000 people in Miyagi, burned furiously into the night with no apparent hope of being extinguished, public broadcaster NHK said.
Koto Fujikawa, 28, was riding a monorail when the quake hit and had to pick her way along narrow, elevated tracks to the nearest station.
"I thought I was going to die," Fujikawa, who works for a marketing company, said. "It felt like the whole structure was collapsing."
Scientists said the quake ranked as the fifth-largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and was nearly 8,000 times stronger than one that devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, last month.
"The energy radiated by this quake is nearly equal to one month's worth of energy consumption" in the United States, U.S. Geological Survey Scientist Brian Atwater told The Associated Press.
President Barack Obama pledged U.S. assistance following what he called a potentially "catastrophic" disaster. He said one U.S. aircraft carrier is already in Japan, and a second is on its way. A U.S. ship was also heading to the Marianas Islands to assist as needed, he added.
An American man working at one of the nuclear plants near the coast when the quake hit said the whole building shook and debris fell from the ceiling. Danny Eudy, 52, a technician employed by Pasedena, Texas-based Atlantic Plant Maintenance, and his colleagues escaped the building just as the tsunami hit, his wife told The Associated Press.
"He walked through so much glass that his feet were cut. It slowed him down," said Pineville, Louisiana, resident Janie Eudy, who spoke to her husband by phone after the quake.
The group watched homes and vehicles be carried away in the wave and found their hotel mostly swept away when they finally reached it.
The government later ordered about 3,000 residents near that plant — in the city of Onahama — to move back at least two miles (three kilometers) from the plant. The reactor was not leaking radiation but its core remained hot even after a shutdown. The plant is 170 miles (270 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo.
Japan's nuclear safety agency said pressure inside the reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant has risen to 1.5 times the level considered normal, and slightly radioactive vapor may be released to reduce the pressure.
The Defense Ministry said it had sent dozens of troops trained to deal with chemical disasters to the plant in case of a radiation leak.
Trouble was reported at two other nuclear plants, but there was no radiation leak at either of them.
Japan's coast guard said it was searching for 80 dock workers on a ship that was swept away from a shipyard in Miyagi.
Even for a country used to earthquakes, this one was of horrific proportions because of the tsunami that crashed ashore, swallowing everything in its path as it surged several miles (kilometers) inland before retreating. The apocalyptic images on Japanese TV of powerful, debris-filled waves, uncontrolled fires and a ship caught in a massive whirlpool resembled scenes from a Hollywood disaster movie.
Large fishing boats and other vessels rode high waves ashore, slamming against overpasses or scraping under them and snapping power lines along the way. Upturned and partially submerged cars bobbed in the water. Ships anchored in ports crashed against each other.
The tsunami roared over embankments, washing anything in its path inland before reversing directions and carrying the cars, homes and other debris out to sea. Flames shot from some of the homes, probably because of burst gas pipes.
Waves of muddy waters flowed over farmland near Sendai, carrying buildings, some of them ablaze. Drivers attempted to flee. Sendai airport was inundated with thick, muddy debris that included cars, trucks, buses and even light planes.
Highways to the worst-hit coastal areas buckled. Telephone lines snapped. Train service in northeastern Japan and in Tokyo, which normally serve 10 million people a day, were suspended, leaving untold numbers stranded in stations or roaming the streets. Tokyo's Narita airport was closed indefinitely.
In one town alone on the northeastern coast, Minami-soma, some 1,800 houses were destroyed or badly ravaged, a Defense Ministry spokeswoman said.
As night fell and temperatures hovered just above freezing, tens of thousands of people remained stranded in Tokyo, where the rail network was still down. The streets were jammed with cars, buses and trucks trying to get out of the city.
The city set up 33 shelters in city hall, on university campuses and in government offices, but many planned to spend the night at 24-hour cafes, hotels and offices.
Japanese automakers Toyota, Nissan and Honda halted production at some assembly plants in areas hit by the quake. One worker was killed and more than 30 injured after being crushed by a collapsing wall at a Honda Motor Co. research facility in northeastern Tochigi prefecture, the company said.
Jesse Johnson, a native of the U.S. state of Nevada who lives in Chiba, north of Tokyo, was eating at a sushi restaurant with his wife when the quake hit.
"At first it didn't feel unusual, but then it went on and on. So I got myself and my wife under the table," he told The Associated Press. "I've lived in Japan for 10 years, and I've never felt anything like this before. The aftershocks keep coming. It's gotten to the point where I don't know whether it's me shaking or an earthquake."
NHK said more than 4 million buildings were without power in Tokyo and its suburbs.
A large fire erupted at the Cosmo oil refinery in the city of Ichihara and burned out of control with 100-foot (30-meter) flames whipping into the sky.
"Our initial assessment indicates that there has already been enormous damage," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said. "We will make maximum relief effort based on that assessment."
He said the Defense Ministry was sending troops to the hardest-hit region. A utility aircraft and several helicopters were on the way.
Also in Miyagi prefecture, a fire broke out in a turbine building of a nuclear power plant, but it was later extinguished, said Tohoku Electric Power Co.
A reactor area of a nearby plant was leaking water, the company said. But it was unclear if the leak was caused by the tsunami or something else. There were no reports of radioactive leaks at any of Japan's nuclear plants.
Jefferies International Ltd., a global investment banking group, estimated overall losses of about $10 billion.
Hiroshi Sato, a disaster management official in northern Iwate prefecture, said officials were having trouble getting an overall picture of the destruction.
"We don't even know the extent of damage. Roads were badly damaged and cut off as tsunami washed away debris, cars and many other things," he said.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the 2:46 p.m. quake was magnitude 8.9, the biggest to hit Japan since record-keeping began in the late 1800s and one of the biggest ever recorded in the world.
The quake struck at a depth of six miles (10 kilometers), about 80 miles (125 kilometers) off the eastern coast, the agency said. The area is 240 miles (380 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo. Several quakes hit the same region in recent days, including one measured at magnitude 7.3 on Wednesday that caused no damage.
A tsunami warning was extended to a number of areas in the Pacific, Southeast Asia and Latin America, including Japan, Russia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Chile. In the Philippines, authorities ordered an evacuation of coastal communities, but no unusual waves were reported.
Thousands fled homes in Indonesia after officials warned of a tsunami up to 6 feet (2 meters) high, but waves of only 4 inches (10 centimeters) were measured. No big waves came to the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory, either.
The first waves hit Hawaii about 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT). A tsunami about 7 feet (2.1 meters) high was recorded on Maui and a wave at least 3 feet (a meter) high was recorded on Oahu and Kauai. Officials warned that the waves would continue and could get larger.
Japan's worst previous quake was a magnitude 8.3 temblor in 1923 in Kanto that killed 143,000 people, according to USGS. A 7.2-magnitude quake in Kobe in 1995 killed 6,400 people.
Japan lies on the "Ring of Fire" — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching around the Pacific where about 90 percent of the world's quakes occur, including the one that triggered the Dec. 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami that killed an estimated 230,000 people in 12 nations. A magnitude-8.8 temblor that shook central Chile in February 2010 also generated a tsunami and killed 524 people.
___
Associated Press writers Jay Alabaster, Mari Yamaguchi, Tomoko A. Hosaka and Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo; Jaymes Song in Honolulu and Mark Niesse in Ewa Beach, Hawaii; Seth Borenstein and Julie Pace in Washington, and Michael Kunzelman in New Orleans contributed to this report.
Hours later, the waves washed ashore on Hawaii and the U.S. West coast, where evacuations were ordered from California to Washington but little damage was reported. The entire Pacific had been put on alert — including coastal areas of South America, Canada and Alaska — but waves were not as bad as expected.
In northeastern Japan, the area around a nuclear power plant was evacuated after the reactor's cooling system failed and pressure began building inside.
Police said 200 to 300 bodies were found in the northeastern coastal city of Sendai, the city in Miyagi prefecture, or state, closest to the epicenter. Another 178 were confirmed killed, with 584 missing. Police also said 947 people were injured.
The magnitude-8.9 offshore quake triggered a 23-foot (seven-meter) tsunami and was followed for hours by more than 50 aftershocks, many of them more than magnitude 6.0. In the early hours of Saturday, a magnitude-6.6 earthquake struck the central, mountainous part of the country — far from the original quake's epicenter. It was not immediately clear if this latest quake was related to the others
Friday's massive quake shook dozens of cities and villages along a 1,300-mile (2,100-kilometer) stretch of coast, including Tokyo, hundreds of miles (kilometers) from the epicenter. A large section of Kesennuma, a town of 70,000 people in Miyagi, burned furiously into the night with no apparent hope of being extinguished, public broadcaster NHK said.
Koto Fujikawa, 28, was riding a monorail when the quake hit and had to pick her way along narrow, elevated tracks to the nearest station.
"I thought I was going to die," Fujikawa, who works for a marketing company, said. "It felt like the whole structure was collapsing."
Scientists said the quake ranked as the fifth-largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and was nearly 8,000 times stronger than one that devastated Christchurch, New Zealand, last month.
"The energy radiated by this quake is nearly equal to one month's worth of energy consumption" in the United States, U.S. Geological Survey Scientist Brian Atwater told The Associated Press.
President Barack Obama pledged U.S. assistance following what he called a potentially "catastrophic" disaster. He said one U.S. aircraft carrier is already in Japan, and a second is on its way. A U.S. ship was also heading to the Marianas Islands to assist as needed, he added.
An American man working at one of the nuclear plants near the coast when the quake hit said the whole building shook and debris fell from the ceiling. Danny Eudy, 52, a technician employed by Pasedena, Texas-based Atlantic Plant Maintenance, and his colleagues escaped the building just as the tsunami hit, his wife told The Associated Press.
"He walked through so much glass that his feet were cut. It slowed him down," said Pineville, Louisiana, resident Janie Eudy, who spoke to her husband by phone after the quake.
The group watched homes and vehicles be carried away in the wave and found their hotel mostly swept away when they finally reached it.
The government later ordered about 3,000 residents near that plant — in the city of Onahama — to move back at least two miles (three kilometers) from the plant. The reactor was not leaking radiation but its core remained hot even after a shutdown. The plant is 170 miles (270 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo.
Japan's nuclear safety agency said pressure inside the reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant has risen to 1.5 times the level considered normal, and slightly radioactive vapor may be released to reduce the pressure.
The Defense Ministry said it had sent dozens of troops trained to deal with chemical disasters to the plant in case of a radiation leak.
Trouble was reported at two other nuclear plants, but there was no radiation leak at either of them.
Japan's coast guard said it was searching for 80 dock workers on a ship that was swept away from a shipyard in Miyagi.
Even for a country used to earthquakes, this one was of horrific proportions because of the tsunami that crashed ashore, swallowing everything in its path as it surged several miles (kilometers) inland before retreating. The apocalyptic images on Japanese TV of powerful, debris-filled waves, uncontrolled fires and a ship caught in a massive whirlpool resembled scenes from a Hollywood disaster movie.
Large fishing boats and other vessels rode high waves ashore, slamming against overpasses or scraping under them and snapping power lines along the way. Upturned and partially submerged cars bobbed in the water. Ships anchored in ports crashed against each other.
The tsunami roared over embankments, washing anything in its path inland before reversing directions and carrying the cars, homes and other debris out to sea. Flames shot from some of the homes, probably because of burst gas pipes.
Waves of muddy waters flowed over farmland near Sendai, carrying buildings, some of them ablaze. Drivers attempted to flee. Sendai airport was inundated with thick, muddy debris that included cars, trucks, buses and even light planes.
Highways to the worst-hit coastal areas buckled. Telephone lines snapped. Train service in northeastern Japan and in Tokyo, which normally serve 10 million people a day, were suspended, leaving untold numbers stranded in stations or roaming the streets. Tokyo's Narita airport was closed indefinitely.
In one town alone on the northeastern coast, Minami-soma, some 1,800 houses were destroyed or badly ravaged, a Defense Ministry spokeswoman said.
As night fell and temperatures hovered just above freezing, tens of thousands of people remained stranded in Tokyo, where the rail network was still down. The streets were jammed with cars, buses and trucks trying to get out of the city.
The city set up 33 shelters in city hall, on university campuses and in government offices, but many planned to spend the night at 24-hour cafes, hotels and offices.
Japanese automakers Toyota, Nissan and Honda halted production at some assembly plants in areas hit by the quake. One worker was killed and more than 30 injured after being crushed by a collapsing wall at a Honda Motor Co. research facility in northeastern Tochigi prefecture, the company said.
Jesse Johnson, a native of the U.S. state of Nevada who lives in Chiba, north of Tokyo, was eating at a sushi restaurant with his wife when the quake hit.
"At first it didn't feel unusual, but then it went on and on. So I got myself and my wife under the table," he told The Associated Press. "I've lived in Japan for 10 years, and I've never felt anything like this before. The aftershocks keep coming. It's gotten to the point where I don't know whether it's me shaking or an earthquake."
NHK said more than 4 million buildings were without power in Tokyo and its suburbs.
A large fire erupted at the Cosmo oil refinery in the city of Ichihara and burned out of control with 100-foot (30-meter) flames whipping into the sky.
"Our initial assessment indicates that there has already been enormous damage," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said. "We will make maximum relief effort based on that assessment."
He said the Defense Ministry was sending troops to the hardest-hit region. A utility aircraft and several helicopters were on the way.
Also in Miyagi prefecture, a fire broke out in a turbine building of a nuclear power plant, but it was later extinguished, said Tohoku Electric Power Co.
A reactor area of a nearby plant was leaking water, the company said. But it was unclear if the leak was caused by the tsunami or something else. There were no reports of radioactive leaks at any of Japan's nuclear plants.
Jefferies International Ltd., a global investment banking group, estimated overall losses of about $10 billion.
Hiroshi Sato, a disaster management official in northern Iwate prefecture, said officials were having trouble getting an overall picture of the destruction.
"We don't even know the extent of damage. Roads were badly damaged and cut off as tsunami washed away debris, cars and many other things," he said.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the 2:46 p.m. quake was magnitude 8.9, the biggest to hit Japan since record-keeping began in the late 1800s and one of the biggest ever recorded in the world.
The quake struck at a depth of six miles (10 kilometers), about 80 miles (125 kilometers) off the eastern coast, the agency said. The area is 240 miles (380 kilometers) northeast of Tokyo. Several quakes hit the same region in recent days, including one measured at magnitude 7.3 on Wednesday that caused no damage.
A tsunami warning was extended to a number of areas in the Pacific, Southeast Asia and Latin America, including Japan, Russia, Indonesia, New Zealand and Chile. In the Philippines, authorities ordered an evacuation of coastal communities, but no unusual waves were reported.
Thousands fled homes in Indonesia after officials warned of a tsunami up to 6 feet (2 meters) high, but waves of only 4 inches (10 centimeters) were measured. No big waves came to the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory, either.
The first waves hit Hawaii about 9 a.m. EST (1400 GMT). A tsunami about 7 feet (2.1 meters) high was recorded on Maui and a wave at least 3 feet (a meter) high was recorded on Oahu and Kauai. Officials warned that the waves would continue and could get larger.
Japan's worst previous quake was a magnitude 8.3 temblor in 1923 in Kanto that killed 143,000 people, according to USGS. A 7.2-magnitude quake in Kobe in 1995 killed 6,400 people.
Japan lies on the "Ring of Fire" — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones stretching around the Pacific where about 90 percent of the world's quakes occur, including the one that triggered the Dec. 26, 2004, Indian Ocean tsunami that killed an estimated 230,000 people in 12 nations. A magnitude-8.8 temblor that shook central Chile in February 2010 also generated a tsunami and killed 524 people.
___
Associated Press writers Jay Alabaster, Mari Yamaguchi, Tomoko A. Hosaka and Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo; Jaymes Song in Honolulu and Mark Niesse in Ewa Beach, Hawaii; Seth Borenstein and Julie Pace in Washington, and Michael Kunzelman in New Orleans contributed to this report.
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The community of Laborie and Saint Lucia as a whole is in mourning over the death former Prime Minister Sir Allan Louisy. Sir Allan’s state funeral is being held this afternoon in the community where he was born. Dignitaries from region have arrived in Saint Lucia for the service and the streets where his coffin was carried was lined with people from the community. See Saturday’s STAR for more on the funeral.
Saint Lucian’s will not be fooled by the politics of desperation
March 7, 2011 - With the cancellation on the sale of the Queen’s chain, awarding of sole source contracts for Hurricane Tomas reconstruction, political gamesmanship for university scholarship for the youth of the country, the high price of goods and services, increase taxes and the pending increase in the price of fuel and its bi - products, the UWP government continue to portray itself as an indecisive and desperate government without a coherent plan.
The LPM, have called upon Prime Minister Stephenson King and his government on numerous occasions to cancel the lease for the Minister for Foreign Affairs using the “majeure clauses” in the terms of the contract, following Hurricane Tomas and to come clean and stop spending hard earned taxpayers’ dollars on the Daher building, and explain to Saint Lucians the decision to advance six (6) months’ rent to date for an unoccupied yellow building intended for the Ministry of Education.
The LPM recommend, as an alternative to spend the hard earned taxpayers’ dollars on social programs and on housing for the people of Saint Lucia, and on the crumbling infrastructure all around the Island, namely, roads, bridges, clearing of rivers and improving sanitation following Hurricane Tomas.
The LPM, is likewise calling on the Minister for Social Transformation and the Minister for Health to get involved on social programs to ease the suffering on seniors for medicine and outpatient care and to increase their monthly allowance and financial support in the poverty reduction fund.
On the eve of an Election and after four years, the people of Saint Lucia will not be fooled by semi-repentance on the passage of the Labour Act, the blind passage of the HIA re-development bill, which is lacking transparency, accountability and effectiveness, and the upcoming election spending package, (which has been hampered due to international events) of rush projects, in the hope of winning hearts and minds.
This election-eve death bed rush of bills in parliament speaks volume of the UWP administration extreme anxiety, indecisiveness and lack of credibility.
It speaks about the decision-making ability of the UWP administration in these critical times.
The LPM, calls upon the UWP government to show some compassion and ease the pain and suffering, for the people of Saint Lucia, by spending the hard earned tax payer’s dollars where it is needed most, in the communities of Saint Lucia. For more information, visit www.lpmnow.org
March 7, 2011 - With the cancellation on the sale of the Queen’s chain, awarding of sole source contracts for Hurricane Tomas reconstruction, political gamesmanship for university scholarship for the youth of the country, the high price of goods and services, increase taxes and the pending increase in the price of fuel and its bi - products, the UWP government continue to portray itself as an indecisive and desperate government without a coherent plan.
The LPM, have called upon Prime Minister Stephenson King and his government on numerous occasions to cancel the lease for the Minister for Foreign Affairs using the “majeure clauses” in the terms of the contract, following Hurricane Tomas and to come clean and stop spending hard earned taxpayers’ dollars on the Daher building, and explain to Saint Lucians the decision to advance six (6) months’ rent to date for an unoccupied yellow building intended for the Ministry of Education.
The LPM recommend, as an alternative to spend the hard earned taxpayers’ dollars on social programs and on housing for the people of Saint Lucia, and on the crumbling infrastructure all around the Island, namely, roads, bridges, clearing of rivers and improving sanitation following Hurricane Tomas.
The LPM, is likewise calling on the Minister for Social Transformation and the Minister for Health to get involved on social programs to ease the suffering on seniors for medicine and outpatient care and to increase their monthly allowance and financial support in the poverty reduction fund.
On the eve of an Election and after four years, the people of Saint Lucia will not be fooled by semi-repentance on the passage of the Labour Act, the blind passage of the HIA re-development bill, which is lacking transparency, accountability and effectiveness, and the upcoming election spending package, (which has been hampered due to international events) of rush projects, in the hope of winning hearts and minds.
This election-eve death bed rush of bills in parliament speaks volume of the UWP administration extreme anxiety, indecisiveness and lack of credibility.
It speaks about the decision-making ability of the UWP administration in these critical times.
The LPM, calls upon the UWP government to show some compassion and ease the pain and suffering, for the people of Saint Lucia, by spending the hard earned tax payer’s dollars where it is needed most, in the communities of Saint Lucia. For more information, visit www.lpmnow.org
Michael Baker will never forget the last night of his recent vacation in St. Lucia. He recalls the sunset as the best yet of his trip, but what happened next may haunt him for the rest of his life.
Baker serves as director of advancement at Positive Impact, an Atlanta HIV agency. He was visiting St. Lucia, an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with his boyfriend, Nick Smith; the pair stayed with another friend from Atlanta, Todd Wiggins, at a mountain-top cottage Wiggins had rented. Wiggins has also been an HIV advocate, including helping found the AIDS Vaccine 200 bicycle fundraiser.
After enjoying the spectacular sunset, Baker and Smith went to the cabin's tiny bathroom for a shower before starting to prepare dinner. It was about 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 2.
Within minutes, the three men would become victims of a robbery that Baker told the GA Voice he feels "very strongly" was motivated by anti-gay hate.
Baker recounted the harrowing ordeal in a Facebook note posted this morning:
I stepped under the water with Nick as he started to lather his hair.
Then I heard a scream I'll never forget. "Oh my god, oh my god, no, no no!!! Stay in the bathroom!! OH MY GOD!"
It didn't make sense... there had been bugs and creatures in and out of the house all week, how could Todd be freaked out by a bug? I went to the door and glanced out. Immediately, I saw a man all in black, his face covered in a tee shirt so I could only see his eyes, and the gun in his hand. We were going to die. I didn't see, but knew there was more than one because someone was attacking Todd.
I closed the door hard, realized there was no lock, and pressed myself against the door as hard as I could, waiting for the bullet to come through the door. The door pushed back against me, hard. Then harder as another person began to shove. It opened far enough that I could see two faces, guns and hands pushing to get in. I shoved back as hard as I could, and it closed. I forgot there was no ceiling on the bathroom or the pantry on the other side of the mirror.
The men then climbed over the bathroom wall to get to them, Baker recalled. All three men were herded to the main room of the cottage, a combined dining room and kitchen. All three were brutally beaten and kicked by the men, who wielded guns and knives.
"They began to tell us that they hated white people. They hated faggots. They asked where we were from. We told them the United States. They told us again how much they hated us," Baker wrote in the Facebook note.
"They asked if we were gay. Why had we showered together? Todd and I both said it was because the water heater was so small. They said if we were faggots they would kill us," he said.
The assailants then tied up the three men and left them in the shower.
"They told us to get off the island. They said they would check on us in five minutes, and if we had untied ourselves, they would kill us," Baker wrote.
Baker and his friends were able to free themselves from the ties and escaped by climbing down the back of the mountain, barefoot and bleeding. They then took a gravel road to eventually reach safety at a friend's house.
Baker said in an email interview that the victims contacted the police, but were fearful because homosexuality is a crime in St. Lucia.
"The police were contacted. The men told us they knew the police and would know if we reported the crime, and told us they would kill us. Initially, the police were almost annoyed with us, almost as if we were the criminals," he recalled. "Todd had a friend in the Ministry of Tourism who pulled some strings and the investigation changed.
"We did mention the anti-gay comments, but since sodomy is a capital offense there, we tread lightly," Baker told GA Voice. "I do feel a lot of shame about that. I will also be contacting the State Department to report the attack."
In the 2008 Human Rights Report on St. Lucia, the U.S. Department of State noted "widespread social discrimination" based on sexual orientation.
"There was widespread social discrimination against homosexuals in the deeply conservative, highly religious society. There were few openly gay people in the country. There were at least two cases of violence against homosexuals, including one young man who was killed when he was hung from a tree because he was openly gay," according to the report.
Baker and Smith returned home to Atlanta the next day, March 3, and praised the kindness of Delta employees on their return flight, where they were greeted by friends when they landed at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Wiggins returned to Atlanta on March 4.
In the Facebook post, Baker thanked everyone who has reached out with support after the attack, and said he continues to grapple with what happened.
"I do think it was partly a gay-bashing. I have so much shame for denying who I was, but I did not feel I could endanger my friend and boyfriend by admitting who I was," he wrote. "I wish I could have fought back more, but we were so over powered. I know that we will all struggle with this for a long time, possibly our whole lives."
Photo: The rental cottage in St. Lucia where three Atlanta men were staying when they robbed in a possible anti-gay hate crime. (Photo via Facebook)
Baker serves as director of advancement at Positive Impact, an Atlanta HIV agency. He was visiting St. Lucia, an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with his boyfriend, Nick Smith; the pair stayed with another friend from Atlanta, Todd Wiggins, at a mountain-top cottage Wiggins had rented. Wiggins has also been an HIV advocate, including helping found the AIDS Vaccine 200 bicycle fundraiser.
After enjoying the spectacular sunset, Baker and Smith went to the cabin's tiny bathroom for a shower before starting to prepare dinner. It was about 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 2.
Within minutes, the three men would become victims of a robbery that Baker told the GA Voice he feels "very strongly" was motivated by anti-gay hate.
Baker recounted the harrowing ordeal in a Facebook note posted this morning:
I stepped under the water with Nick as he started to lather his hair.
Then I heard a scream I'll never forget. "Oh my god, oh my god, no, no no!!! Stay in the bathroom!! OH MY GOD!"
It didn't make sense... there had been bugs and creatures in and out of the house all week, how could Todd be freaked out by a bug? I went to the door and glanced out. Immediately, I saw a man all in black, his face covered in a tee shirt so I could only see his eyes, and the gun in his hand. We were going to die. I didn't see, but knew there was more than one because someone was attacking Todd.
I closed the door hard, realized there was no lock, and pressed myself against the door as hard as I could, waiting for the bullet to come through the door. The door pushed back against me, hard. Then harder as another person began to shove. It opened far enough that I could see two faces, guns and hands pushing to get in. I shoved back as hard as I could, and it closed. I forgot there was no ceiling on the bathroom or the pantry on the other side of the mirror.
The men then climbed over the bathroom wall to get to them, Baker recalled. All three men were herded to the main room of the cottage, a combined dining room and kitchen. All three were brutally beaten and kicked by the men, who wielded guns and knives.
"They began to tell us that they hated white people. They hated faggots. They asked where we were from. We told them the United States. They told us again how much they hated us," Baker wrote in the Facebook note.
"They asked if we were gay. Why had we showered together? Todd and I both said it was because the water heater was so small. They said if we were faggots they would kill us," he said.
The assailants then tied up the three men and left them in the shower.
"They told us to get off the island. They said they would check on us in five minutes, and if we had untied ourselves, they would kill us," Baker wrote.
Baker and his friends were able to free themselves from the ties and escaped by climbing down the back of the mountain, barefoot and bleeding. They then took a gravel road to eventually reach safety at a friend's house.
Baker said in an email interview that the victims contacted the police, but were fearful because homosexuality is a crime in St. Lucia.
"The police were contacted. The men told us they knew the police and would know if we reported the crime, and told us they would kill us. Initially, the police were almost annoyed with us, almost as if we were the criminals," he recalled. "Todd had a friend in the Ministry of Tourism who pulled some strings and the investigation changed.
"We did mention the anti-gay comments, but since sodomy is a capital offense there, we tread lightly," Baker told GA Voice. "I do feel a lot of shame about that. I will also be contacting the State Department to report the attack."
In the 2008 Human Rights Report on St. Lucia, the U.S. Department of State noted "widespread social discrimination" based on sexual orientation.
"There was widespread social discrimination against homosexuals in the deeply conservative, highly religious society. There were few openly gay people in the country. There were at least two cases of violence against homosexuals, including one young man who was killed when he was hung from a tree because he was openly gay," according to the report.
Baker and Smith returned home to Atlanta the next day, March 3, and praised the kindness of Delta employees on their return flight, where they were greeted by friends when they landed at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Wiggins returned to Atlanta on March 4.
In the Facebook post, Baker thanked everyone who has reached out with support after the attack, and said he continues to grapple with what happened.
"I do think it was partly a gay-bashing. I have so much shame for denying who I was, but I did not feel I could endanger my friend and boyfriend by admitting who I was," he wrote. "I wish I could have fought back more, but we were so over powered. I know that we will all struggle with this for a long time, possibly our whole lives."
Photo: The rental cottage in St. Lucia where three Atlanta men were staying when they robbed in a possible anti-gay hate crime. (Photo via Facebook)
Being in opposition has been a humbling experience for Opposition Leader Kenny Anthony. The stunning revelation came as he addressed the tripartite launching of SLP candidates in the Castries basin. His candid admission that “being in opposition has served me well!” is one I have been waiting and longing to hear for a very long time.
Last Sunday, speaking at a mass public meeting dubbed “painting the city red,” the Opposition Leader said that being in opposition had allowed him the opportunity to listen to the cries of the people. Ostensibly, his opposition sojourn afforded him the grounding with the masses that he took for granted upon the assumption of political office the last time around. If this is not simply a vote catching gimmick, then Kenny must be highly commended for this soul surrendering admission. This attempt, no matter how late, at making this public confession, suggests that he may now be prepared to listen to the voice of the people.
There are those of us, myself in particular, who have been vilified as being anti-SLP simply because we have had the courage and the cojones to stand by our convictions concerning Kenny’s extremely poor management of party business. Some of us party comrades have been critical of Kenny, based on our honest convictions about his waywardness in the leadership of the Labour Party, particularly his notorious neglect of party stalwarts, who reacted by distancing themselves from the SLP as December 2006 approached.
We believe strongly that the St. Lucia Labour Party during the its last two terms, and under the leadership of Dr. Kenny Anthony in particular, went astray from the core values, beliefs and principles of George Charles’ Etoile party, the only true Party of the workers in St Lucia. It got so bad that there were even suggestions at one point that the Party’s historical theme, “Bread, Justice, Freedom” should be changed.
Evidently the SLP’s closet millionaires created during Labour’s nine years in power had come to sneer and lift their highfalutin nostrils at the people’s prayer. This is just how badly the Party had drifted away from the path and the struggle of the common man.
With a 16-1 victory in 1997, the Labour Party was given a tremendous, historic and unprecedented mandate to drastically improve the lives of working St. Lucians, but instead, tens of millions of dollars were thrown down the Frenwell deep black hole, not to mention the bold financial mismanagement at the NCA, that found Kenny fiddling and pussyfooting with the NCA Manager and others there, instead of taking the sort of action that prime ministers and ministers of finance are duty and morally bound to take in the handling of the business of the national economy.
The former Prime Minister behaved as if those brothers and sisters who raised the issues of poor and corrupt financial management were Public Enemy Numero Uno!! It is comforting to know that at least the SLP leader is beginning to understand that when people vote for change, their will must be done! On this road to rehabilitation, Dr Anthony will do well to remember that political power is not an inheritance from Massa, but rather a temporary bestowal of confidence from the masses to cherish and to keep in trust. It should be aimed at fostering the development, not of a specific group of butt-kissing Party loyalists, but rather, all the supporters of the party and all the people of St. Lucia, no matter their political affiliations and opinions. “Massa day done” a long time ago in St. Lucia.
In this new age of iphones and tablet technology, leadership requires boldness, innovation and vision. It calls for leaders who can think completely out of the box and elevate the people’s imagination to much higher plateaux of political and economic thought and action. The old style politricking must give way to a brand new orientation, where party colors are not used as divisive mechanisms. Let us face the truth squarely and honestly that the problems that confront our country today are too numerous and too overwhelming to be solved by any one political party or any one leader.
Our challenges require the consolidated and united effort of the entire St. Lucian population. If political parties, as single entities, had all the solutions, then it is reasonable to assume that we would not be in our current mess. If solving the crime problem was the sole private domain of the SLP or the UWP, then we would not still be living in fear. The UWP promised during the last election to combat the crime crisis and it has failed miserably. The SLP while in office faced the scourge and it too came up lacking, with few workable solutions. The evidence is clear that there is a need for new avenues of inter-Party cooperation and collaboration to resolve the challenges of our menacing future.
So it cannot be business as usual. If we begin on the assumption that we all, both parties — King and Kenny, have the best interest of the country at heart, then we will begin to see the problems from different, enlightening perspectives. We will begin to understand that while there may be differences of opinion on how to fix the problems, there must be a common approach that can be embraced by both parties. For too long in this country, decisions are made based on the narrow and self-serving political interests of respective political parties. Crime fighting calls for a joint strategy that will be sustainable through successive administrations. That is the reason why the opposition and the government must begin the dialogue now, and plans and programs agreed upon must be implemented immediately. We must not allow the loss of more innocent lives if united action can stop the killing on our streets.
So, I welcome Kenny’s platform confession as the beginning of a new way of thinking and an admission that he is now prepared to listen attentively to the voice of the people. The people are calling for immediate consultation between the government and the opposition. There are those who are advising him not to heed the call. It is my view that he must not accept this advice for it will be a strategic political blunder. The opposition must get to the table with its own crime fighting measures as quickly as possible.
Last Sunday, speaking at a mass public meeting dubbed “painting the city red,” the Opposition Leader said that being in opposition had allowed him the opportunity to listen to the cries of the people. Ostensibly, his opposition sojourn afforded him the grounding with the masses that he took for granted upon the assumption of political office the last time around. If this is not simply a vote catching gimmick, then Kenny must be highly commended for this soul surrendering admission. This attempt, no matter how late, at making this public confession, suggests that he may now be prepared to listen to the voice of the people.
There are those of us, myself in particular, who have been vilified as being anti-SLP simply because we have had the courage and the cojones to stand by our convictions concerning Kenny’s extremely poor management of party business. Some of us party comrades have been critical of Kenny, based on our honest convictions about his waywardness in the leadership of the Labour Party, particularly his notorious neglect of party stalwarts, who reacted by distancing themselves from the SLP as December 2006 approached.
We believe strongly that the St. Lucia Labour Party during the its last two terms, and under the leadership of Dr. Kenny Anthony in particular, went astray from the core values, beliefs and principles of George Charles’ Etoile party, the only true Party of the workers in St Lucia. It got so bad that there were even suggestions at one point that the Party’s historical theme, “Bread, Justice, Freedom” should be changed.
Evidently the SLP’s closet millionaires created during Labour’s nine years in power had come to sneer and lift their highfalutin nostrils at the people’s prayer. This is just how badly the Party had drifted away from the path and the struggle of the common man.
With a 16-1 victory in 1997, the Labour Party was given a tremendous, historic and unprecedented mandate to drastically improve the lives of working St. Lucians, but instead, tens of millions of dollars were thrown down the Frenwell deep black hole, not to mention the bold financial mismanagement at the NCA, that found Kenny fiddling and pussyfooting with the NCA Manager and others there, instead of taking the sort of action that prime ministers and ministers of finance are duty and morally bound to take in the handling of the business of the national economy.
The former Prime Minister behaved as if those brothers and sisters who raised the issues of poor and corrupt financial management were Public Enemy Numero Uno!! It is comforting to know that at least the SLP leader is beginning to understand that when people vote for change, their will must be done! On this road to rehabilitation, Dr Anthony will do well to remember that political power is not an inheritance from Massa, but rather a temporary bestowal of confidence from the masses to cherish and to keep in trust. It should be aimed at fostering the development, not of a specific group of butt-kissing Party loyalists, but rather, all the supporters of the party and all the people of St. Lucia, no matter their political affiliations and opinions. “Massa day done” a long time ago in St. Lucia.
In this new age of iphones and tablet technology, leadership requires boldness, innovation and vision. It calls for leaders who can think completely out of the box and elevate the people’s imagination to much higher plateaux of political and economic thought and action. The old style politricking must give way to a brand new orientation, where party colors are not used as divisive mechanisms. Let us face the truth squarely and honestly that the problems that confront our country today are too numerous and too overwhelming to be solved by any one political party or any one leader.
Our challenges require the consolidated and united effort of the entire St. Lucian population. If political parties, as single entities, had all the solutions, then it is reasonable to assume that we would not be in our current mess. If solving the crime problem was the sole private domain of the SLP or the UWP, then we would not still be living in fear. The UWP promised during the last election to combat the crime crisis and it has failed miserably. The SLP while in office faced the scourge and it too came up lacking, with few workable solutions. The evidence is clear that there is a need for new avenues of inter-Party cooperation and collaboration to resolve the challenges of our menacing future.
So it cannot be business as usual. If we begin on the assumption that we all, both parties — King and Kenny, have the best interest of the country at heart, then we will begin to see the problems from different, enlightening perspectives. We will begin to understand that while there may be differences of opinion on how to fix the problems, there must be a common approach that can be embraced by both parties. For too long in this country, decisions are made based on the narrow and self-serving political interests of respective political parties. Crime fighting calls for a joint strategy that will be sustainable through successive administrations. That is the reason why the opposition and the government must begin the dialogue now, and plans and programs agreed upon must be implemented immediately. We must not allow the loss of more innocent lives if united action can stop the killing on our streets.
So, I welcome Kenny’s platform confession as the beginning of a new way of thinking and an admission that he is now prepared to listen attentively to the voice of the people. The people are calling for immediate consultation between the government and the opposition. There are those who are advising him not to heed the call. It is my view that he must not accept this advice for it will be a strategic political blunder. The opposition must get to the table with its own crime fighting measures as quickly as possible.
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