MITCHELL
THE ISLAND of Grenada was devastated by a direct hit from Hurricane Ivan on Tuesday. Yesterday the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) commenced operations involving numerous agencies to provide relief assistance to the spice island.
According to Reuters, at least 20 people died as Hurricane Ivan pulverised concrete homes into rubble and hurled hundreds of the island's landmark red zinc roofs through the air, officials said.
About 90 per cent of homes in Grenada suffered damage, Prime Minister Keith Mitchell said in comments telephoned from aboard the British naval patrol vessel HMS Richmond, which rushed to the rescue yesterday.
DEVASTATION
"It's beyond any imagination... We are terribly devastated," said Mitchell, whose own home was flattened when Ivan rampaged through on Tuesday. Grenada has about 100,000 people, with 95,000 on the main island and 5,000 on Petite Martinique and Carriacou.
U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard said virtually every major building in St. George's, Grenada's elegant capital of English Georgian and French provincial buildings, had suffered structural damage. The United Nations is sending a disaster team, Eckhard said in New York City.
ASSISTANCE FOR
INTERNAL SECURITY
HMS Richmond has arrived in St. George's harbour and has done a flyover to
provide an initial assessment. They confirm
previous reports of widespread damage. In addition, the police headquarters has been badly damaged.
The Regional Security System (RSS) has left from Barbados to assist with internal security.
Deputy Coordinator of CDERA Audrey Mullings is leading an initial assessment team to Grenada. The team comprises a representative of the United States Agency for International Development/ Office for Foreign Disaster Assistance, Pan American Health Organisation, an engineer, and the Caribbean Media Corporation which will distribute pool reports to Caribbean media.
Contact with the Emergency Operations Centre has been re-established through Grenada amateur radio operators. The HMS Richmond is also facilitating communication between CDERA and the Government of Grenada.
HMS Richmond medical personnel are providing an initial assessment of needs at the Grenada General Hospital ahead of the arrival of the Pan American Health Organisation representative. The road to the hospital has been cleared.
The harbour is open though a 300-foot vessel is lodged there. The airport runway has been cleared but the control tower was not yet functional yesterday. The road from the airport has been cleared.
The Caribbean Disaster Relief Unit which is also operated by the RSS is deploying a restoration team to the Spice Isle as well as CARILEC which is flying in power utility restoration crews.
Trinidad and Tobago, the CDERA sub-regional focal point for Grenada is mobilising a vessel to deploy relief supplies tomorrow.
In the last 24 hours, CDERA has been flooded with hundreds of calls from the Grenada Diaspora around the world and in an effort to assist with health and welfare information, CDERA is in communication with the International Federation of the Red Cross to organise a mechanism, possibly through the Internet to post information that would answer many of the enquires being received.
(Material for this story was contribued by CDERA and the AP)