Hurricane Dennis Does Whirlwind Tour of the Caribbean

I've heard from one of my friends in Jamaica on the aftermath of Hurricane Dennis; where flooding has left thousands marooned even as the first hurricane of 2005 gains news popularity by heading to Florida's Gulf Coast. According to the Jamaica Observer, 'Thousands marooned'.

Hopefully the image to the left has caught your attention. From the article:

..."There were individual flights because the persons were in different sections of the parish, so individual flights had to be made. So the food flights were delayed. But at least one should have gone off this evening."

The lack of food was the biggest problem for parish residents, said Opposition Leader Bruce Golding, fresh from a tour of St Thomas yesterday afternoon.

"The most urgent need now is food," he told the Sunday Observer. "The shops are completely empty and supplies will have to be flown in."...

...After a tour of these two parishes yesterday, Transport and Works Minister Robert Pickersgill told the Sunday Observer that some sections "may well be called disaster areas".
Golding said from his initial visit to St Thomas, the damage to roads was much worse than that caused by Hurricane Ivan last September.

"The most devastating damage is to the roads and bridges. Some areas are completely cut off, and will be for quite a while," he said.

The fear is that sections of St Thomas will not be accessible to vehicular traffic any time soon. The eastern parish had been getting rains even before Thursday when the situation deteriorated sharply.

"There are a number of sick individuals who have been marooned in the Trinityville Division and the Cedar Valley Division, in some cases for six days because they have been cut off from Monday when they have been having heavy rains," James Robertson, the member of parliament for West St Thomas, said yesterday...

Clearly, Jamaica - which only felt a part of Hurricane Dennis - has sustained serious damage and has quality of life issues to deal with over the next few months - if not years. And having a better infrastructure than Haiti, it's terrible to consider the issues that may not be communicated to the mainstream media from Haiti because of language and issues related to the Floridian Gulf Coast.

Haiti and Hurricane Dennis

While fatalities have been reported in Haiti - reports varying from 5 to 22 - these are fatalities where bodies were actually found. The United Nations has recently reported that there are 100 people missing in Haiti. I've had no email contact with anyone from Haiti since Wednesday, July 6th 2005 so all I can do is hope that my friends and colleagues in Haiti are OK.

Hurricane Dennis and Cuba

While Fidel Castro may live forever, 32 are reported dead in Havana and Haiti... and because of the political nature of Cuba, as well as the issue of language and the fact that the internet connection for the island is only 84 megabit, it's hard to hear anything from Cuba even on a good day. What should be apparent is that Cuba was the hardest hit so far, and we can expect the physical damage to structures to be higher than places with Home Depot. Help for Cuba will probably come from Latin America, more specifically, Venezuala.

It wasn't in the news last year, but Venezuala was the first country to have supplies on the ground in Grenada after Hurricane Ivan, proving that despite some of the most volatile politics in the region - Venezuala is a good neighbour.

The Caribbean and Latin America: Focus

With another multinational disaster on hand in the Caribbean region, it would seem that people would be able to tear themselves away from the television long enough to allow Floridians to evacuate, and worry about their neighbours. I have yet to read or hear anything that CARICOM is doing with regard to the first Hurricane disaster of the year.

There's a calypso in Trinidad and Tobago, whose name I forget - but the chorus is:

...How many more must die?
How many more?
How many more must die?
How many more?...

Perhaps it's time that the CARICOM Secretariat started listening to the local music instead of the popular songs from outside their own region. There's no excuse, and there has never been. Rapid response is what is needed.

Maybe CARICOM should have a meeting to discuss writing a paper about the need for 'Rapid Response'.