by Linda Straker
- Approximately 98% of housing stock on Carriacou and Petite Martinique destroyed
- Government considering using post-Ivan housing gifted by Chinese Government
- 3 categories of vulnerable people including senior citizens to relocate to mainland Grenada
Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell has announced that Government has agreed to relocate in the first instance, 3 categories of vulnerable people to mainland Grenada as the Grenadine Islet of Carriacou continues to adjust following the passage of hurricane Beryl.
Senior citizens in a residential home, pregnant women who have passed their due date for delivery, as well as those who are close to their delivery date and vulnerable members of society, such as the disabled, will be the first to be relocated from Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
Beryl, the category 4 hurricane with occasional wind gusts of more than 150 miles per hour, destroyed approximately 98% of the housing stock when the eye of the hurricane passed over, and most of the residents are now rendered homeless.
Prime Minister Mitchell said that most of the residents are living in emergency shelters, including the residents of the only senior citizens’ home, Top Hill Senior Citizens Home, which houses under 20 people.
“We are evacuating and moving them to Grenada,” the Prime Minister announced during a news conference on Thursday, 4 July 2024. He also disclosed that women who are pregnant and have passed their due date or close to due will also be relocated to the mainland.
It’s anticipated that the evacuated senior citizens will be accommodated in either the sites of a residential home for seniors, which was recently shut down, or at another place in the south of the island.
The Prime Minister said that Government is actively considering using 100 homes that were gifted to the island in the aftermath of the 2004 Hurricane Ivan from the Chinese Government as temporary housing facilities for several people who are homeless, or who are assisting in providing technical assistance to start the rebuilding of properties on the island.
“That is actively under consideration in fact we anticipate that the Ministry for Carriacou and Petite Martinique Affairs, the Ministry For Housing and the Housing Authority are in fact, going to come to some kinds of agreement that will allow use of the Dumfries site once its ascertained that there has been no major damage to it, to be used for temporary housing,” said the Prime Minister.
