Brussels, 08/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 8 November, the European Commission announced that Caribbean countries that had been devastated by Hurricane Sandy would benefit from emergency humanitarian aid of €6 million. Mobilisation of funds from the ECHO budget (the Commission's humanitarian assistance service) will take place within the next 72 hours in order to provide assistance to the most vulnerable populations severely affected by this natural disaster in Cuba (3 million people) and Haiti (1.5 million), but also those in the Dominican Republic and Jamaica who suffered significant material damage. This aid will provide priority funding for food, drinking water and prevention of waterborne diseases and new cholera cases appearing in Haiti, basic household goods, repairing damaged houses, restoring water and providing seeds and equipment to farmers whose crops have been destroyed.
Kristalina Georgieva, Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, explained that the “worst hit country is Haiti, a country still struggling to recover from the 2010 earthquake and cholera epidemic. This year only, Haiti was hit by a drought, followed by Tropical Storm Isaac in August, and now Hurricane Sandy in October. The combined impact of these disasters has been overwhelming for an already very vulnerable population. Cuba, on the other hand, has excellent disaster preparedness programmes but Hurricane Sandy had nonetheless caused serious damages in the eastern provinces”.
Commission-funded disaster preparation programmes in this region will continue. (AN/transl.fl)