Hurricane damage five times higher than earlier assessed
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St. Lucians in the USA are also pooling resources for help fund relief supplies.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is warning that only official figures on the death toll should be considered by the press as persons could only be considered dead if confirmed officially by the Chief Medical Officer.
Earlier, Tourism Minister Allen Chastanet said twelve persons had died, but health officials said it was an incorrect figure as it included persons still missing.
The Prime Minister said on Thursday that, "officially seven persons have so far been declared dead – five from the south and two from the north of the island, including one non-national."
Petrol dried up in the south of the island due to road access to several communities being cut, so a barge from the Grenadines has been recruited to supply fuel to Vieux Fort by Friday.
Lucelec, the island's main electricity company, is still trying to restore electricity to Roseau Dam by weekend, but are still uncertain as to when they will be able to access the dam itself due to several landslides in the area.
The roof flew off the Dennery Hospital on the East Coast, so the nearby Richefond Health Centre replaced it. The Soufriere hospital on the West Coast also issued an appeal for everything from beds to supplies.
Businesses suffered great losses too, with food and grocery suppliers registering heavy losses from flooded warehouses. But NEMO has advised that the business owners should begin to engage in hurricane and disaster planning and insurance against such losses.
Tomas was (at midday Thursday, Eastern Caribbean time) 125 miles south of Jamaica and over 250 miles from Haiti, with hurricane warnings in Port au Prince and tropical storm warnings in Kingston. Cuba, the Dominican republic, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands were also bracing for a visit by Hurricane Tomas.
The last thing Haiti would need after the recent earthquake and the consequent cholera outbreak that has taken over 400 lives is anther natural disaster, but Tomas loomed.
Hundreds of thousands in overcrowded Haitian camps sat helpless, like sitting ducks, asked by the authorities to vacate to safer quarters, but with nowhere to go.
Many in the camps across Haiti didn't even know that Tomas was approaching.
Originally, the entire Eastern Caribbean island chain – from Dominica through to Grenada, as well as French-speaking Martinique – were all put on hurricane alert before Tomas arrived.
Apart from Barbados, St. Lucia and St, Vincent and the Grenadines, other islands affected by Tomas included Dutch-speaking Curacao, which suffered severe flooding and much damage.
On its present course, Tomas has triggered hurricane warnings in the Bahamas, as well as in the British offshore tax haven territories, the Cayman Islands and the Turks & Caicos Islands.
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