Emergency relief supplies flown to Antigua

A chartered flight of national carrier, Suriname Airways (SLM), flew emergency relief supplies to Antigua & Barbuda on Monday. The emergency relief supplies that were donated weigh between 10,000 and 11,000 kilograms and are valued at about $36,000. The transport costs brought the expenses to about $100,000. President Desi Bouterse who is currently on vacation in Cuba last week ordered officials to send emergency relief supplies to the victims of Hurricane Irma. Hurricane Irma has killed at least 10 people in Cuba over the weekend, the authorities say, bringing the death toll in the Caribbean to 38 as the weakened storm moves up the US state of Florida. Presidential advisors Errol Alibux and Dilip Sardjoe and the minister of Foreign Affairs (Buza) have been asked to coordinate the operation and to contact the heads of states of the affected Caribbean countries to find out what the victims needed the most and how Suriname could lend a helping hand. Rice, water, flour, cooking oil, bed sheets, soups, mattrasses, kitchenware, sanitary products, infant formula and milk were loaded on board of the SLM plane before it took off around 1 p.m. The goods were donated by 4 agencies which is why it was not necessary to spend money from the treasury on the purchase of emergency relief supplies. The 4 entities that donated relief supplies are Combe Markt, Rudisa Holdingmaatschappij NV, the National Coordination Center for Disaster Control (NCCR) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Sockbreeding and Fisheries (LVV). Barbuda, the 68-square-mile island, which makes up one half of the dual island state of Antigua and Barbuda, was where the Category 5 hurricane first made landfall before it continued on its relentless churn through the Caribbean and up north to Cuba and the U.S., killing at least two dozen. Irma is the strongest Atlantic hurricane in history and Barbuda, known for its white-sand beaches, is among the worst hit islands, with 95% of its structures damaged. The island’s only hospital, its schools, and its airport now lie in ruins and officials estimate that it will cost more than $100 million to rebuild the island’s homes and infrastructure — a hefty fee for the indebted nation with a GDP of less than $2 billion. Locals were evacuated to the sister island of Antigua, where the Sir Vivian Richards cricket stadium has been turned into a temporary shelter for more than a hundred of the 1,800 homeless Barbudans.