Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Prime Minister Allen Chastanet of Saint Lucia was among the regional leaders who expressed concern and support to The Bahamas, devastated by category five hurricane Dorian which struck on Sunday 1 September. It left extensive damage across the islands of Abaco and is currently pounding Grand Bahama.
Prime Minister Chastanet, whose island was spared the wrath of Dorian when it made its passage through the Lesser Antilles early last week, wrote on his Facebook page “our thoughts and prayers are with our brothers and sisters in the Bahamas and Florida.”
Earlier Sunday 1 September, The Bahamas’ Prime Minister The Honourable Dr. Hubert Minnis pleaded with residents on the island of Grand Bahama to leave high risk zones immediately as the hurricane made landfall.
“Grand Bahama, those individuals in the West End area, this is your last warning. We have made all necessary arrangements, at least 13 shelters available. “May God bless us all,” said Minnis, who said that residents of the Abacos who refused voluntary evacuation are in for the “long haul.”
“This is probably the most saddened and worst day of my life to address the Bahamian people. I just want to say as a physician, I’ve been trained to withstand many things but never anything like this. We are facing a hurricane, one that we’ve never seen in the history of the Bahamas. There will be gusts in excess of 200 mph. We have some of the best standards of home-building within this region.
“Our homes are built to withstand at least 150mph so this will put us to the test that we have never confronted before. The extreme surge of about 20ft… that’s higher than the average roof of our homes here in the Bahamas,” he added. In its latest bulleting, the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said that the eye of ‘catastrophic” Hurricane Dorian was over Abacos Islands and “heading with all its fury towards Grand Bahama.
Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit on Sunday reiterated a call for developed countries to do more to deal with the impact of climate change as Caribbean Community (CARICOM) governments were expressing their…
