At least seven reported dead in Dominica from hurricane hit, State of Emergency declared
Dominica is reporting that at least seven persons were killed after Hurricane Maria ravaged the island on Tuesday.
Communication with the island has been down since early Tuesday morning.
Yesterday afternoon, Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit declared a state of emergency and a curfew from 4 pm to 8 am.
His office said that a French helicopter was on its way to assist. Overflights have since been done by the Caribbean Emergency Disaster Relief Agency (CDEMA) which has allowed the devastation to be seen.
Principal Advisor to Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, Hartley Henry, yesterday relayed a message outlining the dire situation in Dominica following the passage of Hurricane Maria.
Henry, who spoke with Skerrit via Satellite phone, said there’s an urgent need for helicopter services to take food, water and tarpaulins to outer districts for shelter.
FULL TEXT OF HENRY’S MESSAGE
It’s 4:30 a.m. and I just spoke with Prime Minister Skerrit via Satellite phone. He and family are fine. Dominica is not!! Tremendous loss of Housing and Public buildings. The main general hospital took a beating. Patient care has been compromised. Many buildings serving as shelters lost roofs, which means that a very urgent need now is tarpaulins and other roofing materials. Little contact has been made with the outer communities but persons who walked 10 and 15 miles towards the city of Roseau from various outer districts report total destruction of homes, some roadways and crops.
Urgent helicopter services are needed to take food, water and tarpaulins to outer districts for shelter. Canefield airport can accommodate helicopter landings and it is expected that from today, the waters around the main Roseau port will be calm enough to accommodate vessels bringing relief supplies and other forms of assistance.
It’s difficult to determine the level of fatalities but so far seven are confirmed, as a direct result of the hurricane. That figure, the Prime Minister fears, will rise as he wades his way into the rural communities today, Wednesday. The urgent needs now are roofing materials for shelters, bedding supplies for hundreds stranded in or outside what’s left of their homes and food and water drops for residents of outlying districts inaccessible at the moment.