KINGSTON, Jamaica, Jul 10, CMC – The Jamaica government says it has launched the Relief Emergency Assistance and Community Help (REACH) programme aimed at providing immediate assistance to people affected by the passage of Hurricane Beryl last week.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness told Parliament that the major elements of the programme include the distribution of food and essential supplies, utility, water, electricity and telecommunications restoration as well as housing reconstruction and support and economic recovery and restoration of livelihood.
He told legislators that the Ministry of Labour and Social Security has been distributing care packages containing canned food, flour, rice, cooking oil and other items through its network of social workers.
“These care packages contain enough food for a family of four for four days,” he said, adding that approximately 5000 families would have received care package by Tuesday.
Holness said that the government is coordinating the continued distribution of food, water, medical sundries and other essentials to citizens in the most affected areas and that a critical need is the provision of medications, particularly those that require refrigeration. He said the Ministry of Health and Wellness has issued a release providing guidance in this regard.
Holness said four million dollars will be allocated to each member of parliament to respond to the immediate needs of constituents. He said an additional thee million dollars on will be allocated to constituencies where it has been determined that the damage is more severe.
Holness told legislators that the damage to the country’s roads by the category 4 storm could exceed the J$10.2 billion (One Jamaica dollar=US$0.008 cents) figure so far recorded by the National Works Agency (NWA) in its preliminary estimate.
The NWA said that 95 per cent of the blocked roads had been partially cleared and work was continuing.
Prime Minister Holness said the blocked roads have caused limited access to critical services, including at hospitals, 38 per cent of which have been damaged.
He said the estimated cost to repair those damaged, mainly infrastructural works, is in excess of J$1.8 billion.
“The hurricane caused widespread outages of electricity, water and telecommunication services. The absence of these services has exacerbated the suffering of our people who are struggling to cope with the immediate aftermath of the storm,” said Holness.
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