Chairman of the 15-member regional grouping – the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell says while it is still too early to give a financial cost to the damage caused to the British Virgin Islands (BVI) by Hurricane Irma, it could reach a staggering US$1-billion.
BVI parliament building gone
“You are talking every government building destroyed. The schools are gone and all of government headquarters. The ministers’ homes and all; no minster’s home was left not destroyed. Parliament gone . . . really, we are looking at an enormous amount of resources that will be needed,” Mitchell said after leading a delegation that visited the islands battered by the Category 5 storm last week.
It is still too early to say but clearly if you have [a group of] countries like the BVI you have got to be talking hundreds of millions of US dollars, or close to a billion dollars or more,” he added.
CARICOM mobilizing resources
Mitchell said CARICOM was mobilizing some resources to assist the ravaged islands, and would soon hold a donors’ conference in a bid to secure further help.
“After we get a good idea of the problems and a picture of the destruction and the needs that we have seen . . .that should come soon. That will be CARICOM’s major initiative,” said the Prime Minister of Grenada.
A “nuclear hurricane”
CARICOM Secretary General Irwin la Rocque, who was part of the delegation, described Irma as a “nuclear hurricane”.
“When it shook Tortola as a Category 5 and you have heard it being described as a nuclear hurricane, I now understand what they meant . . . The damage is just overwhelming.
“One can shore up building codes as much as possible – and there is always room for improvement – [but] I am sure with a storm of that ferocity, that intensity and as large as it was, the only thing one could do is pray,” LaRocque said.
,“We have just come from Anguilla. Clearly a lot of destruction but nothing to compare to what we saw in BVI. It seems like we are going to have to place more focus on the BVI than what we had been thinking before. That is my estimation of the situation so far,” Mitchell said.
 is organization financial and other relief for the most seriously damaged Caribbean countries impacted by Hurricane Irma.){kind=link}