My Motherland () Zhang Baotong 2017.9.30

Known as a tropical paradise, Dominica has been completely transformed into an uninhabited island after being ravaged by the worst hurricane in a thousand years. As a photography enthusiast in Taiwan, I have personally experienced the whole process of the hurricane and the touching scene of being rescued by the mainland compatriots.

I am a recent graduate of Taipei National University of the Arts, I love photography, and I won the "Best Creativity Award" in the first half of this year at a photography competition for Taiwanese artists, for which my father decided to reward me and let me travel to France. But I wanted to go to Dominica even more, and it seemed more tempting to me. However, my father said that I was a girl, but that kind of place would be more dangerous, because this was the season of storms. However, the more dangerous the place, the more it stimulates my sense of adventure, because many precious photographic subjects are hidden in those dangerous places. This is also the old Chinese saying, "If you don't enter the tiger's den, you will get the tiger." "My father thought what I said made sense and agreed to me, but he repeatedly told me to be safe.

I flew to New York, then to Barbados, and then to Dominica. The plane landed in the capital Russell. Russell is the French word for reed. When the French came to the mouth of the sea, they saw that the area around the mouth was covered with reeds, so they named the place Roseau. Russell is a beautiful seaside town, and standing on the hill behind the town, you can see the colorful seaside town and the clear blue waters. The gorgeous scenery is like a dream.

The town of Russell is very cosy and gorgeous, and the streets are almost full of locals, except for tourists. They are descendants of black Africans and mulattoes. The streets of the town are not long, just like an unknown alley in Taipei, and they have not been visited much before they come to an end. Although Russell has a few two or three-star hotels, I chose a small inn that looked quite comfortable to stay in. Because the country's roads are rough and there are hardly any buses to see, if you want to get out and about, you have to rent a car from the locals, and the rental is on a day-by-day basis. I rented a jeep, prepared the food, and was carried by a local driver, and I went to the more famous tourist spots and then to the unknown places.

Dominica is a mountainous island country in the northeastern Caribbean Sea with a length of 47 kilometers from north to south and a width of 29 kilometers from east to west, with a tropical climate. The island is full of beautiful blue seas, blue skies, rolling mountains, tropical rainforests and exotic flowers. I went to Mauentrou Piton National Park to see the world's only surviving boiling lake and hot mist volcanic eruption site, and to the Caribbean Territory in the north of the country and Antelope National Park, which is surrounded by the sea on three sides.

Antelope National Park is home to tropical forests, coral reefs and wetlands, as well as mountains, trees, historic sites, volcanic sand beaches and Dominica's highest mountain, Diablotin Volcano. I was so fascinated by the beauty of the place that I decided to stay here for two more days to see and photograph. So, I stayed in a very small private inn down the hill. The inn has only two floors, the first floor is occupied by the owner's family, and the second floor has three rooms, which are dedicated to receiving tourists.

On the afternoon of September 5th, I would have liked to have the driver drive me to the Diyablotin volcano and take some more photos there, because there are many rare wonders in the world. However, after lunch, I was about to go out when I found that the weather had changed, and the wind was very strong, and the coconut trees on the shore were bent over, and then I looked at the sea, and the sea was dark and dark, and the wind lifted the waves very high, and rolled towards the shore. I have lived in Taipei since I was a child, and I knew it was a precursor to a typhoon. So, I told the driver that I didn't have to go out this afternoon. As soon as he heard me, he drove back to Russell because he wanted to greet his family.

I knew that the typhoon would not stop without a day or two of rage, so I stayed in the hotel and sorted out my digital camera and typed the better pieces into my laptop. It was about late evening, and the wind was terrible, and the windows were blown by the wind, and it rained so hard that the raindrops hit the windows like machine guns, and the window frames shook violently. Looking towards the seashore again, the fog rolled in like dark clouds, enveloping the whole world, and it seemed that nothing could be seen except for the black thick fog.

I couldn't help but get scared, so I went downstairs to find the boss. The owner, a black man in his thirties, sat quietly in the living room with his wife and two children of about ten years old, like frightened bunnies. I asked the owner in English what was going on. He told me that the weather forecast said it was Hurricane Irma. As soon as I heard that it was a hurricane, my heart trembled. The word hurricane comes from the Caribbean word for demon Hurican, which refers to winds and tropical cyclones of magnitude 12 and above, which can release amazing energy and destructive power in a single day.

I went back to my room and looked up the Internet for information, and there were five levels of hurricanes, and a category 5 hurricane could completely destroy most of the buildings and the roofs of detached houses, and some houses could be blown away completely. The floods will cause damage to a wide area, flooding all buildings near the coast and requiring urgent evacuation of settlers.

I didn't know what Hurricane Irma would be, but I was still very worried and scared. I went downstairs and told my boss this information to see what emergency and preventive measures he had. However, he shook his head again and again, saying that this was their home, and they had nowhere to go.

There is no choice but to resign yourself to fate. I lay in bed, waiting for the hurricane to slow down and subside. However, the wind and rain grew stronger, the thunder exploded like a bomb in the sky, and the electric light flickered in front of the window, illuminating the night sky into a bright light. Now it's not the windows that are shaking, it's the houses shaking, and it feels like the whole earth is shaking. I've never experienced such a terrible night.