UN trying to help SVG raise US$4m for hurricane response

The United Nations and its partners on Thursday launched a Regional Response Plan for Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines in the wake of the widespread destruction caused by Hurricane Beryl.

Prime Minister of SVG Ralph Gonsalves highlighted the urgency of the situation, saying that the category 4 hurricane, which impacted both countries on July 1, had left more than 10,000 people homeless in his country.

His Grenadian counterpart, Dickon Mitchell, said that while he would not use the term “homeless”, at least 10,000 people had suffered significant damage to their homes.

Beryl, the earliest category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, caused death, severe damage and destruction to homes and infrastructure, as well as massive loss of services and livelihoods in Grenada and SVG.

The UN plan, which seeks to address the urgent needs of some 24,000 people in Grenada and 19,000 in SVG, is based on preliminary estimates and funding projections, which will be reassessed in the short term.

The exact numbers remain a challenge, as assessments are ongoing amid damage to logistics, power and communications services and power cuts.

The goal is to raise at least US$9 million — US$5 million for Grenada and US$4 million for SVG — to assist approximately 43,000 people urgently needing humanitarian aid.

“In St. Vincent and Grenadines, the persons who would be homeless … is about 3,500 households. You multiply that by three, you begin to get the numbers which will be homeless,” Gonsalves told an international press conference held online to launch the response.

“They’re in shelters or in other people’s homes or in some cases under the stars as in Union Island, and I suspect in Carriacou also.”

The prime minister said a larger number of people are in need.

Gonsalves noted that the hurricane affected Canouan, Mayreau, Union Island and the resort islands of Palm Island and Petit St. Vincent.

He said there are about 2,500 houses on the non-resort islands of the Southern Grenadines,

“And they’re all gone, except for one or two in between. And then in Bequia and on mainland St Vincent. It’s horrendous,” Gonsalves said.

“I’m telling you when I use the word from the book of Revelation, Armageddon, in the Southern Grenadines, it is truthfully so. You should come and look at it or look at the images,” he said.

‘deleterious climate change

Gonsalves said SVG has been impacted by four significant disasters or emergencies since 2020 — the COVID-19 pandemic, the eruption of La Soufriere volcano in April 2021, there was Hurricane Elsa in July 2021 and Hurricane Beryl.

He said these were “interspersed by excessive rainfall, causing floods and droughts and land degradation.

“All of these are connected to deleterious climate change. And this matter has to be addressed by humanity.  We are on the front lines”

He said the damage caused by Hurricane Beryl will run into hundreds of millions of dollars.

“We don’t have the material or the technical resources. To be sure we’re resilient, we are resilient people. We have done a lot relying on our own efforts. And we have faith and we have fresh hope and we are possessed of love. But we require the solidarity of our regional and international families.”

Gonsalves said the recovery will require substantial resources because people are going to have to be kept with income support and production support for a significant period while the disaster areas are cleaned up and rebuilt.

“We’re going to rebuild 2,500 houses as in the case of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Even a larger country, a larger economy will find that very problematic, much less to a country as small and fragile as ours,” Gonsalves said.

“We really need your help. It’s as simple as that. If you have a sense of responsibility and humanity and I believe you do have I think you will assist.”

3 objectives of response plan

Meanwhile, speaking at the press conference, UN Resident Coordinator for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Simon Springett said he had “a very sobering opportunity” to see firsthand the scale of the destruction and the immediate impacts on families and communities across the affected islands.

“The United Nations in full consultation with the affected governments supported by our technical staff, the Caribbean Disaster Management Agency, Rapid Needs assessment teams and concurrently also with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, we have been collectively supporting the country’s national disaster management agencies.”

He said the response plan is based on three core objectives, the first of which is to scale up immediate and integrated coordinated humanitarian assistance by addressing life-saving and most immediate needs such as food and non-food, water and sanitation, health, shelter, shelter repair, and maintaining a complicated logistics and supply chain.

The second objective is to support the restoration of livelihoods and all critical services, ensuring that early recovery and livelihoods is not an afterthought.

“And we all respect the principle of to build back better,” Springett said.

The third objective is to make sure there is a focus on needy groups to ensure no one is left behind, particularly those with vulnerabilities due to age, gender, disability, etc.

The impacts on families and communities from Hurricane Beryl are stark…  While we seek to support governments to meet immediate humanitarian requirements, it will remain equally important to think of a plan for medium and long-term support requirements,” Springett said. 

“What Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines need right now is international financial support and global solidarity …”