The international community is being urged to offer hurricane relief support for Caribbean countries impacted by Hurricane Beryl.

This appeal is coming from the prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, who is making an urgent plea to international communities to offer support, especially to the southeast Caribbean, which he says urgently needs food, water, and shelter.

This comes weeks after the Caribbean countries, such as Jamaica, Grenada, St Vincent, and the Grenadines, were impacted by the Category 4 storm.

Given the severe impact on critical infrastructure and roadways experienced by these countries, Gonsalves is calling for some US$9 million in assistance from the international community. 

“Together, they constitute Beryl’s Armageddon,” said Gonsalves. “In just a few hours, entire islands were decimated. There is nothing there, really. The housing, public facilities, the shoreline, the fisheries, the tourism infrastructure—they are basically no more.”

Meanwhile, Dickon Mitchell, prime minister of Grenada, said, “There is no economy. We will have to feed the population for the next six months.” He noted that Beryl destroyed 90 per cent of all buildings on several Grenadian islands, including hospitals and airports. “We need the funds now,” Mitchell said, adding, “we deserve to stay alive.”

The United Nations (UN) says US$5 million of the US$9 million requested will go to Grenada and the remainder to St. Vincent and the Grenadines in a bid to help a total of 43,000 people.

Simon Springett, U.N. resident coordinator for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, said “disrupted lives at a scale and ferocity that is becoming all too common.”