Government of Dominica

DOMINICA OBSERVES 6TH ANNIVERSARY OF PASSAGE OF HURRICANE MARIA

As Dominica observes the sixth anniversary of the passage of Hurricane Maria, Prime Minister, Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit says this should be a time of reflection.

Hurricane Maria passed over Dominica on Monday, September 18 2017, leaving devastation and death in its wake.

Over thirty people lost their lives in the Category Five Hurricane, while its strong winds and rains caused floods and damage to the country’s infrastructure and natural landscape, leaving the island bare and in rubble. Over 200 percent of Dominica’s GDP was completely wiped out.

Prime Minister Skerrit says citizens should reflect on how far Dominica has come in its recovery process.

“Today is the sixth anniversary of the passage of Hurricane Maria. I believe it is a time of reflection for the country on the devastation wrought by this hurricane on Dominica; significant, unprecedented destruction. There are many who felt and said, and for good reason, that it will have taken us over twenty years to rebuild. We did so in quick time, rebuilding our lives and livelihoods. It has been very costly, in fixing homes and the sheer amount of funds that was used to clear roads and streets, and dredging of rivers and ravines, the number of homes that had to rebuilt, and schools, health clinics; the funds that had to be used to keep people at work and in work, paid for by the treasury even in the private sector. We paid the salaries of many private sector employees, because it has always been our view in the Government that people needed to go home with a wage and a salary to maintain the dignity of the human being,” Prime Minister Skerrit stated.  

He says Dominicans should appreciate the strides that the country has made in its recovery since the hurricane.

“And so we thank God for his efforts and helping us with our reconstruction and our rebuilding. and I think that we all would accept that this country made tremendous strides in our response to the hurricane. In large measure, we had to expend our own funds in the reconstruction and luckily for us at the time we had a significant amount of monies saved that we were able to use immediately to buy food and other supplies and to help people fix their homes and clear the roads and the streets,” the Prime Minister explained.

He says citizens should use this time to regain the unity and prayerfulness displayed after the hurricane.

“I want us to be in a prayerful and reflective mode in the country. because sometimes when these disasters come by, we are concerned and we are each other’s brother’s keeper, but one the situation subsides and we are back to a sense of normalcy then we go back to our ways of appearing to be divisive and divided among ourselves,” he added.

 

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