Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) leaders discuss hurricane damage in St. Vincent and St. Lucia

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – Leaders of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), under the Chairmanship of St. Kitts and Nevis’ Prime Minister Hon Dr. Denzil L. Douglas and via teleconference, discussed on Friday the damage done to the Eastern Caribbean by Hurricane Tomas.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. the Hon Ralph Gonsalves, whose country along with St. Lucia were hard hit by Hurricane Tomas over the last weekend with Castries reporting at least 14 confirmed deaths and both countries estimating that the damage could run into millions of dollars.

St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas (r)and St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Ralph Gonsalves (l)
Prime Minister Gonsalves has met with a team from the World Bank on Friday and that apart from the seven million US dollars in emergency assistance; his administration had asked the financial institution to help deal with the coastal damage caused by the storm as well as some secondary village roads.

Dr. Gonsalves said that the island had also applied to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a 30 percent of its Special Drawing Rights (SDR) that would amount to four million (US) dollars and that a team from the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) was in Kingstown doing an assessment of the damage caused by Tomas.

CMC reports Prime Minister Gonsalves as saying that the CDB is providing US$70,000 through a soft loan for emergencies and that a further US$250,000 would be made available to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) for assisting the National Emergency Organisation (NEMO).

The Prime Minister said that his administration had also asked the CDB to provide six million EC dollars (US2.2 million) under the Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF).

Gonsalves said that funds were also being made available to the island by Taiwan, Venezuela, the European Union, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), as well as from Australia, Brazil and the Caribbean Development Fund.

In addition, he said he had written to the governments of Libya, Qatar, Turkey and Mexico and that he was awaiting the return of the Foreign Minister of Venezuela to Caracas, who is also a senior member of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) bank so as to fast track the US$20 million that had already been approved for Kingstown.

Dr. Gonsalves has been critical of the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) whose leader, Arnhim Eustace had warned the government not to overestimate the extent of the damage caused by the storm.

Gonsalves said that the damage assessments were being undertaken by foreign aid and financial agencies and local public servants and that Eustace’s statement had the potential to embarrass the country.

But Gonsalves said that the island needed more resources in the efforts at emergency rehabilitation and “I will continue to go and ask for them.”