Kali­fa Clyne

Cari­com is on stand­by to aid Ja­maica, Haiti and the Ba­hamas af­ter Wednes­day's Cat­e­go­ry 1 Hur­ri­cane Sandy bar­relled past Ja­maica, Haiti and the Ba­hamas, says As­sis­tant Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Col­in Grander­son. In a tele­phone in­ter­view with the T&T Guardian yes­ter­day, Grander­son said the Caribbean Dis­as­ter Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency in Bar­ba­dos had been in touch with agen­cies in the three coun­tries and was as­sess­ing the dam­age caused by the hur­ri­cane.

"We know there have been flood­ing and land­slides in Haiti but the as­sess­ments are still be­ing made," said Grander­son. "We are stand­ing by to see what is need­ed. Once the dam­age as­sess­ment is com­plete, we can move for­ward." Cor­po­rate com­mu­ni­ca­tions man­ag­er at Caribbean Air­lines Clint Williams said as of yes­ter­day morn­ing, both air­ports in Ja­maica had re­opened and flights were back to nor­mal.

The hur­ri­cane has claimed at least three lives so far, one in Ja­maica and two in Haiti. In Ja­maica, the Glean­er news­pa­per re­port­ed a 74-year-old man be­ing killed by a boul­der which rolled on­to a house. In Haiti, a woman drowned try­ing to cross a swollen riv­er in Camp-Per­rin and an­oth­er died in the small town of Coteaux, ac­cord­ing to re­ports.

The Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Emer­gency Man­age­ment in Ja­maica is­sued a sit­u­a­tion re­port yes­ter­day at 5 am giv­ing the all-clear for peo­ple could re­turn to evac­u­at­ed com­mu­ni­ties. Ac­cord­ing to the re­port, no fur­ther ca­su­al­ties were re­port­ed. T&T's High Com­mis­sion­er to Ja­maica Iva Gloudon said the sit­u­a­tion hadn't changed much since Wednes­day.

"We are still with­out pow­er. I know Kingston and the out­ly­ing ar­eas are def­i­nite­ly with­out pow­er," said Gloudon.