Following a visit to hurricane-hit Bahamas by a CARICOM high level delegation yesterday, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has allocated almost US$ 1 million in relief funds for the government and the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) has deployed three Emergency Medical Teams which will focus on clinical care for survivors.
According to press statements from the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), CDB and PAHO/WHO the delegation which was led by Allen Chastanet, CARICOM Chairman and Prime Minister of Saint Lucia met with Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis and was briefed on the response operations to Hurricane Dorian through the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) at the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Headquarters. The Delegation also participated in an aerial reconnaissance over Abaco and Grand Bahama.
At least 30 persons died during the two-day strafing of the island chain by the hurricane. The death toll is likely to rise and thousands of houses have been destroyed or severely damaged.
President of the CDB, Dr. William Warren Smith expressed the Bank’s support for the country and disbursed US$ 200,000 as an Emergency Relief Grant the NEMA for humanitarian assistance.
Additionally the CDB has allocated a US$ 750,000 Immediate Response Loan to assist with clean up and short term recovery.
“Countless houses, medical facilities and roads were destroyed or are under water, and the number of lives lost is still rising. The devastation is a stark reminder that climate change is real and a major threat to our Region. Our Region needs to build better and stronger in order to minimise damage and mitigate future losses,” Smith is quoted as saying.
The CDB President pledged the Bank’s assistance with the restoration of essential services on the affected islands, including water and sanitation, and through the re-purposing of available balances from other loans for priority recovery projects in the power and education sectors.
“The Bank is also ready to scale up assistance to provide mental health and psychosocial support in the aftermath of disasters, which is a project that CDB started jointly with PAHO prior to the hurricane season,” the statement explained.
Smith made sure to stress that the CDB is prepared to support “a clearly-defined national recovery plan” with financial means and technical expertise.
PAHO/WHO meanwhile pre-deployed water and sanitation experts and health services experts to Bahamas even before Hurricane Dorian struck.
Dr. Esther de Gourville, PAHO/WHO’s Representative in The Bahamas explained that experts in logistics, disease surveillance, coordination, information (data) management, and civil-military cooperation are in place in the Bahamas office.
Desperate situation
Noting that it is clearly a desperate situation for some persons on Abaco, she said that PAHO is working with the Ministry of Health and emergency teams to help those who survived secure food supplies, safe drinking water and sanitation.
Assessment of needs has begun, and a structures expert is looking at damaged health facilities.
PAHO has also pledged health sector infrastructure and public health support and is acting quickly with the support of the Ministry of Health to assess needs and damage assessments. An Incident Management System has been established in the country office. PAHO’s Disaster Response Team is supporting the Ministry of Health in all areas of the response and is expected to launch a funding appeal in the coming days.
Due to floodwaters and potential contamination with sewage and lack of safe water, the risk of diarrheal and waterborne diseases is high. Additionally institutions such as Rand Memorial Hospital in Grand Bahama are flooded and supplies damaged, and other clinics on Grand Bahama and New Providence are also flooded. As a result patient evacuations will be needed and PAHO’s has placed supplies from its Panama Regional Warehouse on standby.
According to its statement PAHO used its extensive experience in emergency preparedness to improve disaster relief operations, setting up the structures to deploy emergency teams to support public health measures.
Samaritans Purse
A full hospital-capable Emergency Medical Team from Samaritans Purse arrived in The Bahamas yesterday for a three-month stay. The team includes six physicians and two surgeons, 16 nurses, two anesthesiologists, allied health personnel, and logistics and management staff and brought 34 tons of medical equipment and tents to set up operations in Grand Bahama.
Another Emergency Medical Team from Team Rubicon was deployed to Abaco for a 15-day mission. Abaco aerial surveillance shows vast devastation to the island’s infrastructure. Communications are being restored but there is still no electricity on the island, and water, sanitation and food have been identified as critical needs, according to PAHO’s Emergency Operations Center. Over 1,200 people are reported in various shelters in Great Abaco and Grand Bahama and an additional 800 are sheltering at Marsh Harbour Clinic.
A third Emergency Medical Team from Humanity First is expected to arrive today, and the Ministry of Health has designated Dr. Christa Well, medical officer in the emergency service of Princess Margaret Hospital, as the coordinator of the emergency teams. Dr. Well was one of 20 experts who were trained by PAHO in Barbados earlier this year. All the emergency teams are self-sufficient, by PAHO/WHO standards, and will collaborate with health officials in the Bahamas.
PAHO noted that The Bahamas is the first Caribbean country to apply the WHO CICOM international standards to coordinate clinical care in disasters.
Meanwhile Guyana through the Civil Defence Commission (CDC) is still working to coordinate and streamline the assistance it will offer.
“The needs list is changing rapidly. We don’t want to offer the same goods or services already provided by another country or international organization. We will be accessing an updated needs list tomorrow after which we will meet with national and international stakeholders and finalized our plan of action,” CDC Director General Lieutenant Colonel Kester Craig told Stabroek News last evening.
He explained that the CDC met yesterday with the Private Sector Commission (PSC) whose members have pledged their full support.
He also indicated that the CDC has through its network in Guyana already identified an Oil and Gas Specialist in refineries and forwarded contact information as requested to CDEMA. As part of its Rapid Needs Assessment Report, CDEMA has noted that oil tanks at the South Riding Point Refinery in Grand Bahama have been severely damaged by the storm. The agency has identified signs of extensive windblown spillage “clearly visible for 200m to the North-East” of the island.
This is part of the significant impact recorded in the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama as well as the surrounding Cayes.
The CDEMA has reported an approximate 90% catastrophic damage to housing and building structures on the Eastern end of Grand Bahama and significant damage to housing and critical buildings in Central and Northern Abaco.
The agency also noted that electrical power is down on both islands and stressed that access constraints caused by blocked and destroyed road infrastructure can lead to food insecurity.
“One can assume that residents who have remained will need food assistance if road access is not swiftly established and as their food reserves are progressively utilized and were destroyed,” the report states adding that persons on both islands are requesting food and water.
Craig indicated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has through its counterpart in The Bahamas sought to reach out to Guyanese who might have been affected and in need of evacuation but has so far received no such request.
As part of its report CDEMA notes that Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago have all identified oil refinery specialists who are on standby. Other resources provided by CARICOM states include two technical personnel for the rapid needs assessment team with expertise in Disaster risk management and port assessment from Antigua and Barbuda, search and rescue teams on standby in Barbados and Dominica, two technical personnel with expertise in Coastal Zone Management and Oil Refinery Assessment from Jamaica, four technical personnel with expertise in Disaster risk management, information management and port assessment management from Turks and Caicos as well as one technical person with expertise in disaster risk management from the Virgin Islands. The oil refinery experts are apparently needed because of an oil leak from a facility there.
