Beryl dealt Caribbean economies massive blow, says UN. It may take years to recover

A day after a powerful Hurricane Beryl swept Jamaica’s southern coast, bringing floodwaters and ripping off rooftops, hundreds of thousands of Jamaicans remain without power and water, while others are trying to pick up the pieces of their shredded lives.

United Nations representatives in the Caribbean say it is still too early to put a price tag on the devastation. But Beryl’s trail of destruction they say, which includes sunken boats in Barbados, flattened homes in the Grenadines, cut off roads in St. Lucia and downed plantain fields in southern Haiti, is a huge blow to the development of several island-nations.

“Events like this put the sustainable development of these countries back decades,” said Simon Springett, the U.N. resident coordinator in Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. “It has such a major impact on their economic development.”

In the sister-islands of Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the storm hardly left a home standing in some communities. Roofs are missing, second floors are now empty spaces and walls of churches have crumbled.

Recalling a recent exchange between a government minister on the island of Carriacou off of Grenada, and international partners, Springett said when they asked if there were any flat areas for them to set up tents, the minister “was pretty direct, and he said, ‘The whole island is flat.’ And then they responded, ‘Well, what do you need?’ And he said, ‘We need anything that would allow a human being to survive.’ “

The prime ministers of Grenada and St. Vincent have said the record-setting storm has left a field of devastation in their islands with the roofs of private homes and government buildings, gone.

In Jamaica, the situation is not as grim but the devastation still apparent. The Caribbean nation of about 3 million managed to escape a direct hit of Beryl’s Category 4 winds and rains on Thursday, but many rural residents have lost their entire livelihoods. Along with damaged roofs, they are faced with downed power lines, fallen trees and boulder-blocked roads.

“The damage is widely apparent and is felt by persons from all walks of life especially in rural Jamaica, including the southern parishes of Clarendon, Manchester and St. Elizabeth, and those in vulnerable housing,” said Dennis Zulu, the U.N. resident coordinator in Jamaica.

Zulu said as of Friday afternoon, about 70% of people did not have water and 40% were without power. The storm has also affected data connectivity after the country’s two main cell phone providers suffered outages.

Zulu confirmed that there was one dead associated with the hurricane conditions and said a possible second one has yet to be confirmed.

The United Nations has relayed to governments affected by the storm that it stand ready to help, and is currently mobilizing its agencies to respond. In the case of Jamaica, the U.N. has secured $2.5 million from its Emergency Response Fund, and says it can be increased.

Zulu said the U.N. is “poised to mount a coordinated humanitarian response to the international development partner community and already engage international partners in Jamaica and international” nongovernmental organizations.

“Even at this very critical time, I really want to thank and commend the government of Prime Minister Andrew Holness and the government of Jamaica for leading a very proactive approach in response to the effects of Hurricane Beryl,” he said.

Prior to Beryl’s arrival in Jamaica, the storm barreled through the eastern Caribbean where it decimated the housing stock in several islands. Springett said the U.N. had nine of its agencies in Grenada and 10 in St Vincent and the Grenadines, which have received additional staffing after the storm’s passage.

As part of the U.N.’s response, there is a ship leaving on Saturday with supplies to St. Vincent’s sister islands of Canouan, Mayreau and Union Island, which have a total population of about 15,500, Springett said. Afterward, the ship will head over to Carriacou and Petite Martinique, which are part of Grenada and have about 11,000 inhabitants.

“This is a very complicated crisis,” Springett said. “This is really complicated by the severe logistical and access issues directly after the hurricanes. The seas were exceptionally rough, which made it nearly impossible to get there. The air control towers are out, so there’s only fly by visibility but also, even when things get into the airport, there’s no roads to be able to access the goods.”

In Carriacou, for example, there is still no road access and communications were only re-established on Thursday. Still, there has been a large response from volunteers in Grenada and St. Vincent, as well as a large international response. Regional governments have also responded. Their response includes relief by Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, and a French naval vessel that’s expected to dock in Carriacou on Friday.

“It’s really an international effort,” Springett said. .