Copyright caymancompass
Hurricane Melissa was expected to make landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday, 28 Oct. as category 4 or category 5 hurricane: the first time a storm of this magnitude has hit the island directly in known history. Even prior to the hurricane making landfall, organisations across the Cayman Islands were planning relief operations to assist the people of Jamaica in the aftermath. Government issued a statement saying, “The Cayman Islands government stands ready to support the regional relief and recovery efforts that may be required.” The statement also said, “Hazard Management Cayman Islands is closely coordinating with regional partners and relief organisations to ensure an effective framework for assistance should it be requested.” Cayman Islands Red Cross Director, Jondo Obi said the Red Cross would be launching a monetary appeal and will be liaising with the Jamaica Red Cross, which is working with the Jamaican Government. President of the Cayman Ministers’ Association, Torrance Bobb said, “Over the weekend, the churches across the Cayman Islands have been asking their parishioners to earnestly pray for the people and the island of Jamaica.”. Pastor Bobb added that, “A meeting of the Ministers’ Association is scheduled for Wednesday 29 October and the churches would be seeking donations towards a relief fund for Jamaica from their congregations to support the relief and recovery.” The pastor explained that the Ministers’ Association works closely with the Samaritan’s Purse organisation and past experience showed it was more practical to give cash contributions to support the relief efforts, “If impacted people in Jamaica need things like galvanized sheets to put back their roof, or plywood, cash is more practical, effective and efficient, and of course it means we don’t have to store and ship items over from the Cayman Islands.” A spokesperson for the Rotary Club organisation, Monica Ramgeet said, the four Rotary clubs in the Cayman Islands will hold a joint meeting shortly discuss the types of assistance that will likely be needed in Jamaica and how the Rotary Club can best support the relief and recovery efforts.” Similarly, Lion’s Club President, Siri Jones-Russell said, “they were calling an emergency meeting to plan relief and support efforts for Jamaica.” Other kinds of assistance Caribbean Utilities Company (CUC) spokesperson, Nichelle Scott confirmed that CUC was part of ‘CARILEC;’ an association of electric energy providers in the Caribbean and other parts of the Americas, who have agreed to help each other, following impacts from hurricanes and other disasters. Scott said, “Typically, an impacted country will send out a call for the tools, equipment and resources they need to help restore their grid, and whoever can get there quickest will respond to support the recovery of the impact country.” Edris Ocho, Director of the Adventist Disaster Relief Agency (ADRA) in the Cayman Islands said they were planning to establish a central storage area so people can drop off relief items, things like tarps, canned food, bottled water and sanitary items and also a relief fund will be set up. “The ADRA executive will meet shortly, and we will make an announcement after that,” he said. “We don’t want clothes or expired items and people should know that every dollar collected by ADRA goes to people who are genuinely in need… nothing, not one dollar, goes towards management fees or anything like that,” he said. Hazard Management Cayman Islands is part of the regional response mechanism (RRM) of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). One of the core functions of CDEMA is mobilising and coordinating disaster relief, after a Caribbean country is impacted by a disaster. The Regional Response Mechanism (RRM) is a network of CDEMA participating states, national, regional and international disaster stakeholders through which external response and relief operations in support of an impacted CDEMA participating state are coordinated. CDEMA Executive Director Elizabeth Riley told Compass Media on 27 Oct. that, “the needs list for emergency response items would be sent to heads of governments and disaster management offices in the region, including to Hazard Management Cayman Islands, shortly.” With sustained winds of 175 mph, Melissa is now one of the strongest hurricanes, based on top wind speeds, on record in the Atlantic basin. A report from CNN noted, “Only nine Atlantic hurricanes have been stronger than Melissa, though several others have also hit 175-mph strength.”
