Caribbean leaders from “the frontlines of climate change” are appealing for international support in the wake of Hurricane Beryl, which has already caused widespread destruction – even before the usual start to the hurricane season.
Hurricane Beryl, the earliest recorded Category 4 storm in the region’s hurricane season, levelled 90% of the buildings on Grenada’s islands of Petite Martinique and Carriacou.
“We have several hundred persons who are in shelters, mostly in schools, functioning as shelters,” Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell told a press conference this week.
“The clearing of roads to allow relief to get to our citizens, who are in shelters and in the remnants of their homes, is ongoing….our priority over the last week has been mostly in ensuring that we get relief to our citizens who badly need them in Carriacou, and in Petite Martinique,” said Mitchell.
Mitchell joined Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent’s and Grenadines in an appeal to international donors for hurricane relief. They cited the primary objectives for recovery as providing direct support like shelter, food, and medications; supporting the restoration of livelihoods, and protecting the most vulnerable.
“Across St. Vincent and Grenadines, the faces of men, women and children are strained and anxious. They are apprehensive of the future. My country has had four significant disasters or emergencies since 2020,” remarked Gonsalves, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic, volcanic eruptions, Hurricane Elsa, and now Hurricane Beryl.
“All of these are connected to deleterious climate change. And this matter has to be addressed by humanity. We are on the front lines.”
Their appeals underscore the vulnerability of their nations in the wake of an early-season storm and the disproportionate impact of climate change on small island nations
“We have four months left to go in the [hurricane] season. The prediction is not encouraging. We, in Grenada, Carriacou, Petite Martinique, St Vincent and the Grenadines, simply cannot afford another hurricane. Islands are simply too vulnerable at this point,” said Mitchell.
“The major emitters are not listening as carefully as they should. And if they can, if they have been listening, they have not been summoned in the requisite will, political will. To address the existential question of climate change,” added Gonsalves.
“When I use the word from the book of Revelations, Armageddon, in the southern Grenadines, it’s truthfully so.
“We are a resilient people and we have faith and we have fresh hope. But we require the solidarity of our friends and allies,” said Gonsalves.
Mitchell noted that because his nation struggles with high levels of diabetes and hypertension – over 13% of the adult population has diabetes – the burden of these non-communicable diseases means that relief efforts must provide additional support.
Hurricanes alter physical and social environments, exposing people to stressors and impeding healthcare delivery. While hurricanes are typically associated with health risks like water-borne diseases and pollution, the mental health burden of such a disaster requires additional psychosocial support.
“Given the stresses that people are under, the challenges with the elements, and the extremely hot climate, there is a real risk that some of those [health] challenges will be exacerbated,” Mitchell said.
Grenada anticipated some of these challenges by evacuating its senior living homes on the island of Carriacou because “we simply could not deal with [the] potential catastrophe of the lack of medical supplies,” Mitchell explained.
Despite Grenada’s fiscal resilience and legislation that ensured some funds for “rainy days and disastrous days,” as Mitchell describes, its domestic funds are inadequate to help the more than 10,000 families rebuild their homes.
“Even a larger country with a larger economy would find this difficult,” Gonsalves added.
In the wake of the destruction, the United Nations (UN) and its partners launched a $9 million response plan to provide urgent humanitarian aid to 43,000 people in Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
The UN’s Regional Overview and Response Plan seeks $5 million for Grenada and $4 million for St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Simon Edward Springett, UN Resident Coordinator in the Caribbean region, noted “what Grenada and the St Vincent and the Grenadines need right now is international financial support, and global solidarity.”