Guyana sending relief assistance to Grenada

GEORGETOWN (CMC):

Guyana on Tuesday began loading the first of several flights containing relief supplies to Grenada following the battering the country took from the passage of Hurricane Beryl on Monday that left at least three people dead and severe damage and destruction on the sister isle of Carriacou

The Civil Defence Commission (CDC) said its staff and members of the CDC Volunteer Corps packed relief material for residents of Grenada including tarpaulins, chain saws, generators, batteries, torch lights, safety vests, hygiene items, water purification tablets and collapsible water bottles.

President Irfaan Ali on Tuesday released pictures of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) SkyVan packed with an assortment of items, hours after Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said he was expecting an aircraft from Guyana with much-needed items.

“In the case of Guyana, the plane is already loaded. Even if the plane lands in Carriacou, we have to be able to move within Carriacou so we want to make sure that that takes place first so that when the relief supplies coming via the airport or the port, we could actually get them to the villages within the island,” Mitchell told a news conference ahead of a virtual meeting of CARICOM leaders.

Mitchell said he had specifically requested helicopter assistance as an “immediate need” to access Carriacou where almost all of the buildings have been flattened, telecommunication services have been cut and there is no fuel for heavy duty machinery.

The Prime Minister said one person died in Grenada when a tree fell on a house while Hurricane Beryl slammed the islands. Across in Carriacou, he said two other persons perished.

St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said one person died on sister-island Bequia and that there could be more fatalities.

Gonsalves said President Ali had promised to send a quantity of construction materials to Kingstown.