JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Sunday, June 15, 2025

PM: T&T will help storm-hit Haiti

by

20161004

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley says T&T will pro­vide as­sis­tance to Haiti if re­quest­ed fol­low­ing pas­sage of the Cat­e­go­ry 4 Hur­ri­cane Matthew, which hit the Caribbean na­tion yes­ter­day.

Row­ley said so in re­sponse to ques­tions from re­porters af­ter yes­ter­day's launch of the PNM's 60th an­niver­sary Na­tion Build­ing Ca­lyp­so Com­pe­ti­tion at Bal­isi­er House, Port-of-Spain.

The fi­nals of the com­pe­ti­tion will take place at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain, on No­vem­ber 12 from 7 pm.

Asked to com­ment on the hur­ri­cane which had just start­ed to af­fect the coun­try, Row­ley re­spond­ed: "Oh, poor Haiti. Every time there is some­thing bad hap­pen­ing in the Caribbean Haiti has to get a piece of it."

Row­ley said the eco­nom­ic sit­u­a­tion in T&T would not ham­per its gen­eros­i­ty to a Caribbean na­tion in need.

"Haiti is a mem­ber of Cari­com. We are Caribbean peo­ple and if there is any­thing that we can do in the event that they need help, T&T will al­ways be pre­pared to share what we have with those who are in great­est need.

"Re­gard­less to what our (eco­nom­ic) cir­cum­stances are, we will al­ways have enough to share with our broth­ers and sis­ters who might be in greater need," he added.

Ja­maica was spared the worst of the hur­ri­cane and Row­ley said he spoke with that coun­try's Prime Min­is­ter An­drew Hol­ness yes­ter­day. He did not elab­o­rate on the con­tents of the dis­cus­sion.

At the time of yes­ter­day's in­ter­view, Row­ley said he had not re­ceived any re­ports of the ef­fects of the hur­ri­cane in Haiti.

He said: "We have to wait and hope­ful­ly it is not (too bad) be­cause they haven't even re­cov­ered from the earth­quake (in 2010) yet and to be hit by what is one of the most pow­er­ful storms pass­ing through (was un­for­tu­nate).

"It is a big hur­ri­cane so I think it is a re­al threat."

In­ter­na­tion­al me­dia re­port­ed at least sev­en deaths from the hur­ri­cane. Four died in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, one in Haiti, one in St Vin­cent and the Grenadines and one in Colom­bia.

Row­ley al­so ad­vised na­tion­als to be more re­spon­si­ble in prepa­ra­tion for pos­si­ble nat­ur­al dis­as­ters. He said the no­tion that "God is a Tri­ni" should not be used to pre­vent cit­i­zens from be­ing re­spon­si­ble dur­ing pe­ri­ods of nat­ur­al dis­as­ter.

In re­sponse to an­oth­er ques­tion, Row­ley said while the State agen­cies will do all they could to en­sure they were ready if a hur­ri­cane was ap­proach­ing the coun­try there could nev­er be "per­fect prepa­ra­tion."

The Prime Min­is­ter said cit­i­zens should be mind­ful that "the time to pre­pare for a hur­ri­cane is not dur­ing the event but be­fore. Don't give up your re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to any­body.

"God will take care of every­body but we can't just re­lin­quish that to a God head. He will take care of us but we too have to take care of our­selves in the process," he added.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored