According to the government in Castries, banana crops were completely wiped out. It is targeting the middle of next year for the resumption of banana exports.
Badly roughed up St Lucia says electricity has been restored to 95% of the island.
Tourism officials said the country was already welcoming back visitors.
Tourism Minister Allen Chastanet said St Lucian hotels and resorts were “resilient and many of them are ready to welcome visitors”.
Mourning UWI Professor
Jamaica and the rest of the region are paying tribute to Professor Barry Chevannes of the University of the West Indies (UWI), who died in hospital on Friday.
Education Minister Andrew Holness said the academic’s passing was a significant blow to the intellectual reservoirs of Jamaica and the Caribbean. Professor Chevannes was described as someone who demonstrated an unwavering commitment to building a better society through his writings, lectures and community-based projects.
UWI colleague Trevor Munroe said the late professor was admired as an outstanding teacher, researcher and author.
He said Professor Chevannes’ pioneering study on the Rastafarian movement brought him “justifiable international recognition”.
Aid policy defended
Senior Government Minister Jack Warner has defended Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s aid policy. The prime minister has been criticised for attaching conditions to aid Port of Spain is giving to its storm-hit neighbours.
She said last week that Trinidad and Tobago must benefit from any assistance given to Caricom states hit by Tropical Storm Tomas.
Critics have described the statement as insensitive, and consumers around the region have been calling for a boycott of Trinidadian-made products. Warner is fighting back. He says those criticising Persad-Bissessar should remember that “charity begins at home”.
Help with “no strings”
When she visited St Lucia last week, Prime Minister Persad-Bissessar said relief assistance to the hurricane-ravaged island would be granted with no strings attached. But not all St Lucians were keen on forgiving her earlier statement.
One man called for an apology, while another said had he known earlier that she was visiting St Lucia, he would have gone to the airport with a placard telling the Trinidadian leader that she was not welcome.
The St Lucia Manufacturers Association was also among those denouncing Mrs Persad-Bissessar’s controversial aid comment. Association President Paula Calderon said in a statement that manufacturers in the sub-region had remained steadfast in supporting Trinidad and Tobago’s oil industry at the expense of lucrative deals offered by another oil rich country, a clear reference to the Venezuelan Petro Caribe arrangement.
