CDEMA struggles to assess Hurricane Beryl’s devastation in hard-hit islands

As the Hurricane Beryl has caused havoc in several small island nations in the Caribbean, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency is not able to make a proper assessment of the deaths and the devastation on these islands.

Elizabeth Riley, the Executive Director of CDEMA revealed this and added that her team is having a hard time while accessing the severely affected areas of St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada.

She noted that in several of these islands, access is only through boast and the seas have been very rough, which is why the officials on the islands have had to wait for the seas to calm them they are able to go over there and see what has transpired in those jurisdictions.

She continued to say that they would have got in yesterday and assessed the information which is necessary to compile to present facts what the actual damage has been to human lives and the properties.

Beryl, the powerful Category 5 hurricane, destroyed several homes and businesses and also claimed four lives in Windwards Islands, three in Grenada, and one in St Vincent.

CDEMA Director also mentioned that the entire populations on these two islands are left homeless, with officials working hard to bring things back to normal, but it is a long journey.

Riley said that with respect to Canouan, which comprises a total population of 12,600 individuals, 100 percent of the population has been impacted, while on Union Island, which has around 3000 people, the full population was affected.

Carriacou, one of the islands in Grenadines has been damaged severely with 90 percent of the infrastructure being destroyed.

She further continued to say that the participating CDEMA states including Trinidad and Tobago have mobilised to provide aid resource to the hurricane hit islands. She confirmed that two fast ferries were provided by Trinidad and Tobago to assist in the transport of people as well as relief items.

Grenadian Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, on Tuesday, called the destruction in Carriacou and Petite Martinique ‘Armageddon-like’ and said that having seen it himself, there is nothing to prepare someone for this level of destruction.

He also called on the developed world for climate justice while noting that the small islands cannot continue shouldering their burden.