The Prime Minister has opened up TT to child victims of Hurricane Beryl and is organising to send relief supplies to Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) after Hurricane Beryl devastated both countries.
In a Facebook post, PM Dr Keith Rowley said Caricom Heads met in a virtual session on the morning of July 2 and received updated reports by Grenada PM Dickon Mitchell and SVG PM Ralph Gonsalves.
Hurricane Beryl left four dead and millions of dollars in damages but Caricom countries were banding together and were in the process of providing aid to the beleaguered countries.
When Beryl made landfall on Carriacou, an island of Grenada, it also hit the nearby SVG. When the eye of the hurricane passed over Carriacou at 11.10 am on July 1, the hurricane was a Category 4 storm. Later that day it strengthened to Category 5, a hurricane with sustained winds above 157 mph, the earliest Category 5 storm of a hurricane season on record in the Atlantic Basin.
During a press briefing on July 1, SVG PM Ralph Gonsalves said Union Island had been devastated and the roof of the island's airport was gone, along with those of many other buildings. There was also damage to the islands of Mayreau, Canouan and Bequia, where there was one confirmed death.
When Newsday called Gonsalves on July 2, he was on his way to tour Union Island. He said he would give an update on the situation in his country the next day.
According to a CMC news report, at a news conference in the capital St George's, Mitchell said the hurricane 'flattened' Carriacou and damaged the neighbouring island of Petite Martinique. One death was reported in St George when a tree fell on a house and two on Carriacou. He said there were 'possibly more.'
He said a helicopter was requested from other countries in the region to visit Carriacou as the Coast Guard would not be able to deal with the seas, which were still very rough. But a larger vessel would take the Commissioner of Police, security officers and some technocrats to Carriacou to assess the situation.
He also said movement around the islands was restricted as the government was unable to clear the roads due to a lack of fuel for heavy-duty machines and downed utility lines.
Rowley said the government was mobilising relief supplies to be urgently despatched by marine crafts on the night of July 2.
'Given the level of total devastation experienced on these islands, the government of TT, acknowledging the deep familial ties between these islands and TT, has offered to allow school-age children from the devastated zones to be allowed into TT if they have family here, who may wish to house them during the school holiday period, which is upon us at this time.'
This is not the first time Rowley has opened TT's doors to Caricom neighbours after a natural disaster.
On September 21, 2017, at a post-Cabinet press conference, he announced the same for the people of Dominica after Hurricane Maria devastated the island. He said TT was not able to contribute financially to Dominica's
