(Montreal) Canadians Lynn Kaak and her husband did what they could to help the Caribbean island nation of Grenada after Hurricane Beryl left part of the country “absolutely devastated”.
As a volunteer consular officer with the Canadian High Commission in Barbados, providing consular assistance to Canadians in Grenada, Ms.me Kaak has been busy buying bottled water for storm victims, a precious resource she says is running out in the country. On Thursday, she was collecting bags of coffee from a nearby roaster — items that will help residents pack up their belongings.
The Grenadian islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique were devastated, Mr.me Kaak and some of his friends’ homes were destroyed or badly damaged, including that of a fellow Canadian. Beryl hit the country earlier this week as a Category 4 hurricane — the strongest storm to form in the Atlantic this early in hurricane season.
“They are always trying to clear the roads to get through,” M said.me Kaak, who first sailed to Grenada in 2010 with her husband and moved to the island nation from Toronto eight years later, described Carriacou as “absolutely devastated.”
Downgraded to a Category 2 storm on Thursday as it headed toward Mexico’s Caribbean coast, Beryl left at least nine people dead, including three in Grenada, and destroyed 95% of homes on two islands in neighboring St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“It’s just heartbreaking right now,” Mr.me Kaak.
“After all these storms, one of the most difficult things is communications. Yesterday, they finally got cell phone coverage back in Carriacou. However, the big problem now is how to charge your cell phone without electricity,” she added.
In Montreal, Gemma Raeburn-Baynes said that Beryl had torn the roof off his uncle and cousin’s Grenada furniture business, but the storm had spared their home.
” The place where [ils] live in Saint Patrick, was hit by the hurricane Beryl “much harder than the people in the south of the island,” said M.me Raeburn-Baynes, president of Playmas Montreal, an organization that promotes Caribbean culture and works for the Spice Island Cultural Festival, an annual celebration of Grenadian culture in Montreal.
“Communities have come out and are trying to do some cleaning up. Grenadians are very resilient, so I hope they survive this,” she said.
In 1955, when she was four years old, a hurricane claimed the lives of 14 members of her family, all living under one roof.
Solidarity
Even if Mme Raeburn-Baynes says she is heartbroken by the damage caused by Berylshe finds reason for optimism in the coming together of Canada’s Grenadian community to raise funds for those affected by the hurricane. The Spice Island Cultural Festival, set to begin next week, will provide an even bigger platform for fundraising, she said.
Meanwhile, in Mexico, residents are preparing for the arrival of Beryl.
For the past five years, Canadian Anne Glennie Ruttan has lived in a house on the Yucatan coast in the path of the storm. Although she feels safe, she said she is still preparing her property for what is to come.
“We take this seriously,” Mr.me Glennie Ruttan, adding that she had filled up the drinking water, tied down the patio furniture and emptied the roof drains.
In Playa del Carmen, most businesses were closed Thursday and some boarded up their windows as tourists ran and some locals walked their dogs under sunny skies. In Tulum, the Mexican Navy patrolled the streets, telling tourists in Spanish and English to prepare for the storm. Everything was expected to close by noon.
The head of Mexico’s civil protection agency, Laura Velázquez, said Thursday that Beryl is expected to become a Category 1 hurricane when it hits a relatively sparsely populated part of Mexico’s Caribbean coast south of Tulum early Friday.
International Development Minister Ahmed Hussen announced Wednesday that the Canadian government would provide $1 million in critical aid to storm victims.