by Bennette Roach
leaves 20 dead, more missing while Montserrat spared once again from back to back tropical storms with no reports of damage or injury
Water rushes over a vehicle already washed into a river of rushing water
The Antigua and Barbuda Met Services said nearly inches of rain fell on the mountainous island late Wednesday, followed by another six inches early Thursday. Later information said and confirmed that some 15 inches (38 centimeters) of rain fell on the mountainous island.
Meanwhile Dominica’s National disaster official Don Corriette said about 80 per cent of the island was without electricity, and water supply was cut off. One journalist confirmed in a report “About 80 percent of the island was left without electricity, and the water supply was cut off. Trees and light poles were strewn across streets, and several buildings sustained damage, including torn off scaffolding. The reports say further, the main airport was closed because of flooding, with water rushing over at least one small plane.
The reports started pouring in Friday morning and by evening could be summarized from various reports following.
Erika whipped the island for more than five hours on Wednesday, bringing strong winds and intense rain that provoked flooding and landslides. Hundreds of homes were destroyed.
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit appealed for international aid and estimated that damage from the storm could set the country’s development back two decades.
Skerrit said that all of the residents of the town in the country’s southeast would be evacuated on Monday. He declared disaster status for nine local areas.
Skerrit said that extent of the devastation was “monumental.”
“Access by road to these communities is impossible,” he said. These towns “are cut off from the rest of the country.”
The melancholic prime minister vowed parliamentary representatives will meet with families who lost loved ones to plan and complete funeral arrangements, and those injured will receive the utmost care.
He promised to check on every impacted family. “I give you my pledge that we shall not cease until contact is made with every community and a full account is given of every single missing person. I take this opportunity on behalf of my dear wife, Melissa, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Government of Dominica and the Dominica Labour Party to extend to the bereaved, our deepest and most sincere condolences,” Skerrit lamented.
“I give you my pledge that we shall not cease until contact is made with every community and a full account is given of every single missing person. I take this opportunity on behalf of my dear wife, Melissa, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Government of Dominica and the Dominica Labour Party to extend to the bereaved, our deepest and most sincere condolences,” Skerrit lamented.
The melancholic prime minister vowed parliamentary representatives will meet with families who lost loved ones to plan and complete funeral arrangements, and those injured will receive the utmost care.
The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Commission worked with multiple national and international agencies, including the United Nations Development Programme and the United States Agency for International Development, to ensure the best possible response to the dire situation in Dominica, Dominica News Online reported.
One reported stated that in the wake of Erika’s devastating effects, Joshua Francis, parliamentary representative for the Roseau South Constituency, called on the people of the small island nation to come together in spite of losses, stating, “Together, we must stand together, and together as a nation we will overcome! It’s a very worrying, and sad moment for us; some of us have lost our loved ones, some of us have been made homeless, and some of us have had some kind of material loss. We are going to need as much help as possible. However, we should not lose our resolve, resilience, faith, and love for each other.”
“The capital city is a wreck. It is a sight to behold. It’s a disaster,” policewoman Teesha Alfred told the AP about Roseau.
“The extent of the devastation is monumental. It is far worse than expected,” he said, adding that hundreds of homes, bridges and roads were destroyed. “We have, in essence, to rebuild Dominica.”
Nearly 50 people by evening were reported missing in Dominica, and that number is expected to rise, opposition leader Lennox Linton said after leaving a meeting with the prime minister and other politicians.
On Friday evening, Skerrit asked people to share their resources with each other as foreign aid trickled in.
“This is a period of national tragedy,” he said. “Floods swamped villages, destroyed homes and wiped out roads. Some communities are no longer recognizable.”
Emergency officials were searching for several missing people after rain-triggered landslides on the small, mountainous island of Dominica on Thursday, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said in a radio broadcast.
Overflowing rivers and landslides washed away several roads and bridges there, and Tourism Minister Robert Tonge posted photographs and video on Facebook showing widespread flooding in the capital.
For days forecasters have described Erika, the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, as unusually hard to predict due to disruption from wind patterns and its interaction over land, which weakens a storm, as well as warm water, which adds energy. The forecasters were spot on with that as here in Montserrat, the forecasts with that caution predicted the center of tracking to pass between Antigua and Barbuda which had put Dominica far out of reach. But within hours that all changed and the center was tracking between Montserrat and Guadeloupe putting Dominica being south of Guadeloupe right in the way of the outer bands of wind and rain.
