Copyright 7newsbelize
Lily Bowman, Director General, Belize Red Cross Society "Well as we all know this was a **category 5 hurricane that hit Jamaica** and imagine it's just like you can almost say on the heels of Beryl that hit them last year, unfortunately it really devastated the **breadbasket of the country**, so many farms were destroyed you know, St Elizabeth getting the brunt of it. It is just catastrophic what they went through and what we know, because communication lines are down still I believe they are just trying to work on getting electricity to most of the country so we have not really been able to communicate with the National Society, the Red Cross National Society there. But our international federation has been in communication with their people that have been sent over to support. We know that at least **6,000 people had to take shelter** and I am sure that many more were evacuated and must have gone to other areas for shelter." "We saw it necessary to launch an **emergency appeal** asking our people in Belize, every little copper, every little dollar counts these people need **food, clean drinking water, they need household items they need health access, to health they need hygiene materials they need cash** to try and put their lives back together." "The Red Cross is asking for **cash mainly** because it is the easiest thing to get to the people that really need it. Of course the most affected will receive support from your donations and **every cent is going to them**, to the assistance. So we are **not accepting in kind donations** as much as they need it because of the logistics to get it there."
