Before Hurricane Maria made landfall in Dominica father Eric David Shargel was missing his three-year-old son Elijah. He had recently signed over guardianship of the young boy to a former professor from Hunters College in New York. He wanted his son to be safe and secure in the United States, and his oldest son, 24 years old, was a student at Hunters College and would help look after the boy.
His other child, 14-year-old Naya, had gone to stay with his mother for a few weeks when the storm hit, and so, when Maria made landfall and devastated the island, causing all forms of long-distance communication impossible, Eric lost any ways to contact his boys. He knew Elijah was safe and sound in New York, but Naya, on the other side of the island, had no such guarantees.
Eric went to the U.S. Department of State evacuation control center as soon as possible to ask them about Naya, and see if the Joint Task Force staffing the center could help him find his son. He drew them a map of where he thought Naya would be on the island, but three days went by without any signs of Eric’s missing son.
In an interview, Eric stated, “As I stayed at the evacuation center for three days, the service members were such an amazing help to keep my hopes high and spirits up. I was able to vent to the U.S. forces about my worries and concerns, and they helped the time pass and kept my mind off my worries.”
Eric himself is a United States citizen who was born in America, and the Department of State has been leading voluntary evacuations of American Citizens since September 22nd from the airport in Dominica. In addition to the forces helping with that effort, other members of the task force are working with the U.S. Agency for International Development to bring humanitarian aid and disaster relief to both Dominica and St. Martin.
The task force took Eric seriously and did not give up on finding his boy. Eric said that every time a helicopter landed in the evacuation center, he hoped that Naya would be on board. Finally, on September 26th, his wish was granted, and Naya stepped off the helicopter escorted by the task force search and rescue team. Eric immediately ran to Naya and wrapped him in a hug, while crying tears of joy.
Speaking of the moment, Eric says, “It felt like I could finally breathe again when I saw my boy walking toward me. I had a fatherly intuition that the SAR team had my son in this particular helicopter and had finally found him.”
Both Eric and Naya have now successfully evacuated from Dominica, and hope their story brings attention to the efforts of the task force on the island, and all those still there in need of help.
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Source: DoD Live
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