Just received this alert from the Global Voices mailing list about the flodding in Suriname. If you do know of anyone who can help, please email me at caribbeanfreeradio[at]gmail[dot]com and I’ll relay the message:

An urgent request here to the GV community: Is there anyone on this list who can understand/speak Dutch to do translations into English? Specifically they’ll be translating information from a radio station broadcasting from the Republic of Suriname, on the boarder with Brazil. This is a request to help us over at WorldWideHelp.info to translate the details into English so that we could blog it out.

There’s been some heavy flooding in Suriname over the past 48 hours and 15.000 people have been displaced already and that the
infrastructure there has taken a major hit. More rain is expected to fall in the low land, likely to directly affect the situation in the
capital Paramaribo.

Because of continued torrential rainfall, the situation is deteriorating further. Airstrips are inundated, creating challenges to the logistics for an aid operation. Late last night the national army and the police scaled back their aid action “Operation falawatra” to a certain extent.

The President there has issued a state of emergency and is expected to request international assistance soon, has not yet. At present, exact information is scarce and the only available information is coming out in Dutch from the radio station. Since Suriname is somewhat an isolated place, it is hard to obtain information, the people we have been in contact with there at the airport (Suriname Airways) and the Central Bank have told us that 3 children are dead, the toll may rise and that help/aid is needed asap.