by B. Roach
Members of Contingency to Dominica
Montserrat having escaped the direct effects following the passage of Tropical Storm Danny, then Erika was quick to respond to the disaster which resulted from extended heavy rainfall that impacted and left Dominica ravaged with an eventual loss of lives and disaster.
Coming right after the conclusion of the Royal Montserrat Defence Force annual camp the Government of Montserrat with the UK Department for International Development support decided to deploy a contingent from the Force to Dominica. The contingent will carry out disaster relief work and support CDEMA in their work on that island.
Commanding Officer of the RMDF, Captain Alvin E Ryan assured the people of Montserrat that, “we will do our country proud and a big thank you to those employers who again at very short notice released their employees who are members of the force to go on deployment on behalf of the Government and people of Montserrat.”
The contingent provided regular updates on the assistance they provided. They returned to Montserrat in the evening, Tuesday, Sept 8, 2015, having left Montserrat by ferry at 3:00 a.m. Tuesday, September 1 with some relief supplies from various organisations on island. They were seen off by Premier, Donaldson Romeo was on hand at the Port in Little Bay.
A statement from the Government reports as follows:
“While in Dominica the Royal Montserrat Defence contingent lived and worked with their regional counterparts in the Regional Security System (RSS) who were based at RSS HQ in Morne Bruce overlooking Roseau in Dominica. The contingent carried out duties in two main deployments. One was to Petite Savanne as reported before and the other to assist at the police station in Colihaut and in the affected area of Dublanc.
“Other regional forces that made up the RSS forces came from Barbados, St. Kitts, Antigua and Barbuda, and St Vincent. In addition RMDF members were able to assist persons from the Royal Navy Fillet Auxiliary Ship Lyme Bay who were deployed in Dominica in digging out vehicles and houses in affected areas as well as deliver food to persons in those areas.”
The report further stated, “The RMDF contingent received the gratitude of the SSU commander for the Commonwealth of Dominica Police Force ASP Cuffy for the assistance provided by the RMDF during their deployment there. The Royal Montserrat Defence Force contingent was met by their Acting Commanding Officer Capt. Peter W A White who visited Dominica aboard the Ferry on behalf of the Substantive Commanding Officer Capt. Alvin Ryan to see how the troops were doing and to see first-hand some of the work they did.”
Speaking upon his return, Capt. Peter W A White told reporters, “The gratitude expressed by the people of Dominica was overwhelming and I can attest to the fact that the team represented themselves, the government and people of Montserrat well.”
He further expressed again, “sincerest thanks to those employers who released their staff who are members of the RMDF so that they could be part of this deployment.”
In an update of the deployment activities, they reported: “the unit is being transported to Petite Savanne by military helicopters from the Venezuela Armed forces as the area can only be reached by air or by sea. Currently, there is no electricity, water and limited cell signal in the area.” One report had said, “About 80 percent of the island was left without electricity, and the water supply was cut off.”
Petite Savanne is one of the areas that sustained tremendous damage from water and landslides and most of the 700 villagers had been evacuated, but reports indicated that 19 known persons remained unwilling to move.
