Ivan devastation:
A Caribbean family tragedy

`We’ve to help’ – President Jagdeo
PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday said the devastation Hurricane Ivan unleashed on Grenada is a Caribbean family tragedy and Guyana has to help the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) sister state despite its own constraints.

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A FAMILY TRAGEDY: President Bharrat Jagdeo at yesterday’s press briefing. (Winston Oudkerk photo)


It’s a time of tragedy in the Caribbean family and we have to help”, he told reporters just before he was due to fly to Trinidad for today’s emergency CARICOM summit on the hurricane crisis.


The summit, expected to be attended by most of the leaders of the 15-member community, other than Haiti, is being jointly coordinated by the CARICOM Secretariat and the Trinidad and Tobago Government.
“We have poverty, too, that is true. But this is a very serious tragedy for our region,” Mr. Jagdeo said at an impromptu press briefing at the Office of the President.


“Just think about what the people of Grenada are going through at this time.”


The home of Grenada Prime Minister Keith Mitchell was among the 90 per cent of buildings downed by Ivan the Terrible last Tuesday.


Heads at today’s special summit are to be briefed on the extent of the damage Ivan left in Grenada, Jamaica and other islands.


They will then devise a strategy that will allow each country to provide specific forms of assistance to those affected.


“That way, we’ll avoid duplicating each other and so allow Grenadians to derive maximum benefit from our collective efforts,” President Jagdeo said


Wednesday, September 15, 2004