B.D.F. contingent heads to Grenada
As the horror stories and depressing pictures continue to pour out of Caribbean Islands suffering from the wrath of Hurricane Ivan, the region is pooling its resources to offer relief to those devastated by the storm. Today Belize dispatched Brigadier General Earl Arthurs, coordinator of the National Emergency Management Organization to the island of Grenada, where ninety percent of the country’s infrastructure suffered some sort of damage. Arthurs will join Lt. Georgia Nicholson and two other communications officers already on the ground in Grenada, working with the Caribbean Disaster Relief Unit. Arthurs, accompanied by a civil engineer, logistics officer and personnel from the NEMO secretariat, will help the Caribbean nation deal with the heavy damage to its own response organizations, as well as the general devastation.
Earl Arthurs, Brigadier General (ret), NEMO
?I expect to find that a lot of the infrastructure will be down. I mean I am taking some emergency rations for myself and all the things that I will need to be able to survive for a week or two. But at the same time, my job is to go over there and help to organize people. In something like this the biggest problem is chaos and so you need to get people to organize and lead and the major response agencies over there suffered themselves: the EOC was completely knocked out and all the policemen suffered damage of their own, at home so the agencies were looking at the survival of their families and their own selves and didn?t have much time to deal with the other population. So what we are doing in the region, and this is not only a Belize thing, I am part of the region that is actually going over. Because I know the coordinator from some of the other countries will meet with me and for us to work this thing as a team.?
?I would like to make an appeal to all Belizeans to assist by pledging money really to the Red Cross Appeal fund, they?ve opened accounts in all the banks and the Red Cross is the agency I think that will be able to ensure that the money will be spent wisely.?
As part of our assistance, Belize is also planning to send a platoon of engineers to assist with reconstruction efforts. However, given the amount of supplies and equipment needed by the soldiers, local authorities are liaising with officials from the US Southern Command to explore the possibility of having the US army transport the BDF contingent to the island.
