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With Hurricane Maria still threatening parts of the Dominican Republic and Turks & Caicos, Caribbean government and tourism officials are beginning to calculate the impact of the second devastating storm to strike the region in a matter of days.
Ravaged by Maria on Monday, rescue and recovery efforts are being launched in Dominica and Puerto Rico, which was heavily damaged by Maria on Tuesday and Wednesday. Both islands escaped significant damage from Hurricane Irma days before.
The entire country of Dominica was impacted by Hurricane Maria, which created “billions of dollars” in damage, said officials of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) in news reports. The storm produced seven confirmed fatalities said Hartley Henry, principal advisor to Roosevelt Skerrit, Dominica’s prime minister.
Additionally, Dominica’s capital city of Rouseau and communities across the island suffered heavy flooding and severe damage to buildings and other structures. The roofs of the city’s hospital and community center were torn off, a fate suffered by numerous buildings across the island.
Henry said Wednesday he talked with Skerrit via satellite phone. The prime minister expressed an urgent need for “helicopter services to take food, water and tarpaulins to outer districts for shelter,” Henry said.
“The past 24 hours have been difficult and exhausting for the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands, especially our friends, family, neighbors and communities on St. Croix,” said Kenneth E. Mapp, the U.S. Virgin Islands’ governor.
He said the territory has established the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands to coordinate recovery efforts. Mapp said government officials will work with “our federal partners and our friends across the mainland and around the world, to clean up and reconstruct the beautiful U.S. Virgin Islands.”
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