Brussels, 31/08/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 31 August, the European Commission announced that it was preparing to allocate emergency aid of €3 million to deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Dean in the Caribbean. As a result of the decision, aid can be provided to some 50,000 people affected by the hurricane in Belize, Jamaica, Santa Lucia, Dominica and Haiti. Funds will be managed by the Commission's Directorate General for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO).
Aid will be used for temporary shelters, medical care, drinking water, sanitation, food and other necessities, urgent repairs to homes and efforts to restore people's livelihoods. In a press release, Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel said that, without the preparations and early warning systems already set up in the region thanks to Commission financing, the death toll would have been much higher. He stressed that the disaster again underlined the importance of risk reduction programmes and preparedness. Since 1995, the European Commission has provided humanitarian aid worth more than €127 million in response to emergencies in the Caribbean. In addition to emergency aid, ECHO has allocated over €16 million to disaster preparedness in the region.
Hurricane Dean swept through the Caribbean from 17 to 21 August, killing fifteen people and leaving a trail of destruction behind it. In Dominica and Saint Lucia, 75 to 85% of the banana crop was destroyed and plantations (mainly fruit) were uprooted, destroying much of the food supply and livelihoods of the local populations. In Haiti, the floods and high winds destroyed plantations, houses and infrastructure. In Jamaica, the government has declared a month-long state of emergency. In Belize, nearly 2,500 families have lost their homes and many crops have been destroyed, particularly in the Corazal and Orange Walk districts in the north. (ol)