BY JOE KAY
The Associated Press
Reds pitcher Jose Rijo and Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa are helping their Dominican Republic homeland in the aftermath of Hurricane Georges, which caused billions of dollars in damage and killed at least 300 in the Caribbean.
Mr. Rijo is buying clothes and trying to arrange food shipments in the Dominican Republic. Mr. Sosa's charitable foundation is organizing a similar relief effort.
Mr. Rijo, who is under a minor-league contract with the Cincinnati Reds, was in the Dominican Republic supervising final construction on his baseball camp. He rode out the storm in his high-rise apartment in Santo Domingo.
His house and apartment had minor damage, and the baseball complex was undamaged.
He was contacted by phone on Friday while trying to buy 2,000 pounds of clothes and set up a shipment of food. Food and water are running low after the storm's 110-mph wind and heavy rain destroyed most of the nation's food crops.
"The whole country's in bad shape right now," Mr. Rijo said. "I'm in the middle of buying some clothes to donate to the homeless and trying to buy some food."
Mr. Rijo also said the construction workers from his baseball camp were going out into the communities to clean up downed trees. At least 210 of the 300 Caribbean dead were in the Dominican Republic. Mr. Rijo, who was born in San Cristobal, was stunned at the scope of the damage.
"A whole school went down and killed 20 people," he said. "Seventy people died in my hometown."
Said Mr. Sosa: "All the information I get from my country is bad. They're finding a lot of bodies. A lot of people died and a lot of people have no homes."
Mr. Rijo compared it to the aftermath of Hurricane David, which tore through the island in 1979. That storm killed an estimated 1,200 people.
"It's terrible," Mr. Rijo said.
"I saw David in '79. That was worse than this, but we were just recuperating from it. Now it's set it back 10 years."
Hurricane coverage from Associated Press
