Today a MapAction advanced party deployed to Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname, to meet up with the UDAC team and to access the role for MapAction.  Nigel Woof and Toby Wicks deployed early on Friday to Amsterdam to obtain visas from the Suriname Consulate. 

The afternoon was spent at the Hotel Atlantis on GIS data preparation in consultation with UK Base Team.  A decision whether to send the main body of the team will be made at about midday on Sunday (14 May) after Nigel and Toby have had time to make their assessment of the situation in Suriname.  The main body is on call to depart early on Monday 15th May. 

Before they departed on Saturday they produced two maps of the country overview showing the extent of the flooding and also a map of the affected population. Nigel and Toby were busy en route and they continued with map production, as much as laptop battery would allow, and produced the second versions of these first two maps.  They will arrive in Paramaribo at 1625 this evening, Saturday 13th May.