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Grenada's Recovery Efforts hampered by Hurricane Emily

Contact: Claudia Monlouis
 

Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States on Tuesday, July 26^th, dispatched an 11 person team from the Saint Lucia based Secretariat for Grenada.

The team will carry out an assessment of the macro socio-economic impact of Hurricanes Ivan and Emily on the country. Senior Communications Officer of the Secretariat Kendol Morgan says Grenada and the rest of the OECS have yet to feel a collective sense of relief, since the impact of Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

The findings of the team will inform how the OECS will once again help Grenada to pick up the pieces. “The team will include four macro-economists, two agriculture sector specialists, two social sector specialists, fisheries sector specialists and environmental sector specialists. What they will do is to collect, compute and analyse direct and indirect effects that the Emily has on the economy of Grenada in the short and medium to long term.”

Grenada has been in Post - Emily response mode since the passage of the storm over the Windward Islands on July 13^th, 2005.

Mr. Morgan says fortunately once again Grenada has been assured of continuing assistance from both the Caribbean and International financial agencies.

“What has happened since Ivan is the very extensive assessment done by the OECS Secretariat and the very scientific nature of it, has allowed the Grenada authorities to pool together two major meetings of international meetings – one in Washington and one in St. George’s at which they were able discuss the state of play, the extent of the damage and each pledged the level of assistance, in a particular area of focus for that assistance. That has been able to mobilise significant support for Grenada.”

The disaster agencies in Grenada so far have put the estimated damage from Emily which was a less destructive hurricane a category one, at about 200 million US dollars.

Morgan said this compounds the hardships from Ivan, “…a number of communities in the rural areas were affected and that equates to a number of the poorer segments of the population with 3000 houses damaged including police stations and hospitals especially in the dependencies of Cariacou and Petit Martinique and significant amount of the agricultural sector.”

The findings of the OECS Assessment Team will be presented to the Grenada Government to facilitate negotiations with development partners.

The country is said to be stable this time around as Grenada registered a tremendous improvement in disaster management, security and response organization in marked contrast to the post hurricane Ivan period which plunged the island into a brief period of lawlessness.

Meanwhile Prime Minister of Grenada Keith Mitchel has again made a plea for support and has acknowledged the region’s commitment to Grenada in its time of need.

The Caribbean Basin is viewed as one of the world's most disaster prone areas. Member states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are vulnerable to hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, flooding and occasional drought.

The Caribbean Disaster Management Fund works on two fronts:

• to improve the ability of disaster management bodies to prevent and reduce the impact of disasters and,

• and to provide assistance following major disasters.

One initiative under way in Belize, the British Virgin Islands, Grenada and Saint Lucia encourages safe building practices designed to withstand hurricanes or earthquakes.

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