Guyana doles out $50M to states affected by Hurricane Sandy

Nov 20, 2012 News

Four Caribbean territories hard hit by Hurricane Sandy last month will be receiving help from Guyana, Government yesterday announced.
Cuba will get US$100,000 ($20M) while Jamaica, Haiti and the Bahamas will each be receiving US$50,000 ($10M) for their rebuilding efforts.

Santiago, Cuba after Hurricane Sandy hit last month.

“The Government of Guyana has decided to make a financial contribution to the reconstruction efforts of four Caribbean countries which were significantly affected by tropical storm Sandy,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Two deaths were reported in the Bahamas when Sandy struck late last month with significant damage to infrastructure in that tourist destination. Haiti was the hardest hit.
Hurricane Sandy destroyed 70 per cent of the crops in southern Haiti and caused heavy deaths of livestock, while in neighbouring Jamaica it left at least $16.5 million worth of damage in its wake, said officials in the Caribbean nations.
Sandy’s rain-heavy outer bands dumped more than 20 inches of rainfall on October 24-25 on the southern coastal town of Les Cayes in Haiti and the surrounding countryside, causing rivers to overflow. Haiti has reported 54 deaths.
Roughly 370,000 people are still living in flimsy shelters as a result of the devastating 2010 earthquake.
In Jamaica, where Sandy’s centre made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane and killed one man, the economic toll of the storm was at least $16.5 million, said Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.
More than 130 were reportedly killed in the Caribbean and US.
In Haiti, 52 persons were killed while Cuba recorded 11 deaths; Jamaica, one and Bahamas, two.