CARICOM meeting postponed as member states assess hurricane damage – Love FM Belize News & Music Power

This week should have been a week of celebration for Caribbean countries, but it was anything but as Hurricane Beryl swept through the region. The Caribbean Community issued a statement saying it was a terrible start to what is expected to be a very active hurricane season this year. To this end, Caribbean Community countries gathered today to strategize on how to provide emergency assistance to sister countries to help them recover and rebuild. Belize Prime Minister John Briceno confirmed that Belize will do everything it can to provide assistance.

John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “Probably many Belizeans don’t know, but Grenada was due to take over the CARICOM Chair on July 1st and the meeting was supposed to take place next week. But unfortunately, due to the hurricane, that is no longer possible. So we had a virtual meeting this morning for different countries, specifically St. Vincent in Grenada and the Grenadines and of course Jamaica, to have them report on the extent of the damage caused by Hurricane Beryl. St. Vincent and the Grenadines seems to be the worst hit country with the most damage, some communities have been almost destroyed and Prime Minister Gonsalves said that it will cost the EU hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild and recover. So it will be a long process. The same is true for Grenada, they are more of the smaller islands that were badly hit, including the main island of Grenada, which also suffered a lot of damage. The damage was particularly severe, especially homes and crops, infrastructure, electricity, etc. in both countries were destroyed. Jamaica noted that they were lucky not to be hit directly, but electricity was still an issue. Many of their lamp posts were blown down by the hurricane, so there is an urgent need to work to restore power to the country. So during the discussion, it was pointed out that we need international assistance as soon as possible. Our people can’t wait. They’re going to be hungry, a lot of people won’t be able to work, their crops have been destroyed, their homes have been severely damaged, so they have to be rebuilt everywhere, and tapping into this collective frustration that these international bodies have been slow to respond, President Ali stressed this very much and said that we as a community need to be able to produce our own reports and present them to these international communities so that they understand the extent of the damage and where we need help, rather than for them to come to these countries and produce their own reports, which will take months. ”

The 47th Heads of Government Meeting was scheduled to be held on July 4, the anniversary of the founding of CARICOM. The meeting had to be postponed due to the severe damage in Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique, where homes and other infrastructure were almost 100% destroyed. In St. Vincent and the Grenadines, similar infrastructure on the Union Islands, Canouan, Mayreau and Tobago Islands was severely damaged or destroyed. In Barbados, the fisheries sector was severely damaged and the livelihoods of fishermen had to be rebuilt from scratch. Initial reports from Jamaica indicate damaged infrastructure, blocked roads, flooding and losses in the agriculture and fisheries sectors. The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) and national disaster management agencies, which work together to coordinate emergency assessment and response across the region; the Regional Security System (RSS); and the regional private sector, such as the Caribbean Community Private Sector Organization (CPSO), have been rallying together to address the needs of those affected so far, while other sectors are also ready to help in different ways.