Hurricane Maria's death toll on Dominica is 27 tonight, and more casualties are expected because 18 persons are still listed as missing. As much as 80 percent of the island nation's buildings have been damaged and there's no phone service or electricity. Food and water are scarce, and officials and aid workers say it could take months, if not years to rebuild what has been destroyed.
All that must have been weighing heavily on the mind of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit when he went to the United Nations General Assembly to address the plenary session on Saturday morning.
While the world news followed the antics of Trump and his Rocket-man, Skerrit gave a sobering address on the devastating effects of climate change on small island states:...
Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit- Prime Minister, Dominica
"Mr. President, I come to you straight from the frontline of the war on climate change. With physical and emotional difficulty, I have left my bleeding nation to be with you here today. Mr. President, warmer air and sea temperatures have permanently altered the climate between the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Heat is the fuel that takes ordinary storms, storms we could normally master in our sleep, and supercharges them into a devastating force. We as a country and as a region did not start this war against nature, we did not provoke it. The war has come to us. Mr. President, my fellow leaders, there is no more time for conversation. There is little time left for action. While the big countries talk, the small island nations suffer. We need action and we need it now Mr. President. But what is our reality at this moment? Pure devastation, as Dominicans bear the brunt of climate change. I repeat, we are shouldering the consequences of the actions of others, actions that endanger our very existence and all for the enrichment of a few elsewhere. Mr. President, we dug graves today in Dominica, we buried loved ones yesterday and I am sure that as I return home tomorrow we shall discover additional fatalities as a consequence of these encounters. Today 72 thousand Dominicans lie on the frontline in a war they did not choose with extensive casualties from a war they did not start. Our homes are flattened, our buildings roofless, our water pipes smashed, and our road infrastructure destroyed. Our hospital is without power and schools have disappeared beneath the rubble. Our crops are uprooted, where there was green there is now only dust and dirt. The desolation is beyond imagination. Mr. President, fellow leaders, the stars have fallen, Eden is broken. The nation of Dominica has come here to declare an international humanitarian emergency. Let these extraordinary events illicit extraordinary efforts to rebuild nations sustainably. We are in shock but we are not stooped, we cry but we do not despair. We will rise because Dominican people are strong because Caribbean people are resilient. We will rebuild our garden of Eden again for our children and for future generations."
Skeritt noted that in the past century, enduring a category 5 storm once in a lifetime was the norm, but his island has seen two in less than a month.
Dominica remains under curfew, but the place chief reports massive looting after the storm.
Locally, Diamonds International Belize - which owns half of the Fort Street Tourism Village is having a bar-b-que fundraiser on Friday at the Village's Terminal 2. Diamonds International has stores in in many of the Easter Caribbean Countries damaged by Hurricanes Maria and Harvey.
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