Caribbean Disaster Relief Efforts Underway Following Hurricane Beryl's Impact: CDEMA Executive Provides Updates

Executive of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) Elizabeth Riley says the region is rallying support for the islands hit hard by Hurricane Beryl.

Addressing an online media conference yesterday, she said Union Island, Petit Martinique and Carriacou had been devastated by the Category 4 system which passed south of Barbados on Monday.

Riley, however, could not confirm reports of deaths, as assessments of damage were at an early stage.

CARICOM governments have met on how to respond to the impact of Beryl, she noted, adding that the Barbados Government has offered the Bridgetown Port as a facility for transshipment of relief items.

Trinidad and Tobago is providing two fast ferries for transportation and a number of governments and international institutions, including the World Food Programme and the Caribbean Development Bank, have indicated their support for the affected territories.

Carriacou and its population of 12 600 received a 100 per cent impact from the hurricane, with damage to buildings and homes, it was reported. Petit Martinique suffered 80 per cent damage and Union Island had 98 per cent of its buildings damaged by the storm.

Riley said the government of St Vincent and the Grenadines has appealed for cash donations as well as Grenada which has provided a needs list. She added bank and other details will be available on social media.

The CDEMA boss stressed the need to co-ordinate relief supplies and that in the case of Grenada, only those items indicated on the list would be accepted and shipped.

Riley said the Regional Security System (RSS) has responded and made aerial assessments of damage in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Residents of one the hardest-hit islands, Union, have been alerted that evacuation to mainland St Vincent may be facilitated.

Guyana will be providing two flights with relief items, Antigua and Barbuda was responding with a suite of relief items, including water and ice, while St Kitts and Nevis was also donating relief items, Riley reported.

“The Caribbean is rallying its support. No breakdowns of law and order have been reported to me,” she said.

Short airstrips and sole access by boats to some islands were among the challenges, Riley added.

Meanwhile, in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves told the nation following the passage of Beryl that at least one death had been reported. The airport had also sustained some damage. He said he expected similar levels of destruction in the islands of Myreau and Canouan.

He called on the business community to open up their establishments and on community Vincentians to help rebuild the nation.

In St George’s, the Grenada has already written to financial agencies and multilateral partners requesting that the debt payment suspension clause in several loan agreements be triggered because of the devastation on the country by Hurricane Beryl.

In 2022, the national debt of Grenada amounted to an estimated US$0.77 billion.

“The Minister of Finance has already written to some of our multilateral partners to indicate to them that this catastrophic event has happened and to trigger our debt suspension clause in some of these agreements,” Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell told a news conference.

Following the passage of Hurricane Ivan in 2004, then prime minister Dr Keith Mitchell had advocated and successfully campaigned for a debt suspension to be included in all new loan agreements.

Mitchell said Beryl’s damage was having both fiscal and social impacts on the economy and right now it will need significant resources.

He told reporters that the clean-up exercise alone will run into the “tens of millions of dollars” while announcing there will be a national clean-up on the weekend.

The prime minister acknowledged that “it is going to be a mammoth task to rebuild

Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique”.

“I want to stress that the environment has taken a severe battering as a result of this hurricane, not just the built infrastructure. We need to make sure that we record accurately the loss, the damage and that we are able to quantify this because it has significant implications for the economy of Grenada, for the government’s fiscal situation and for some of our contractual obligations, liabilities as well as benefits,” Mitchell added. (HH/PR/CMC)