Volunteers with Partners 4 Global Health Chris Kendall (front) and Ali Swanson (left) help to clear a beach on Grenada after Hurricane Beryl tore through the island country.
Andy Lyons/Provided
But the storm nearly disrupted those plans. Beryl slammed into Carriacou and Petite Martinique on July 1 as an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane with 140-mph winds and a storm surge of 6 to 9 feet, according to the National Hurricane Center. The impact was horrific.
“Those two islands were, as the Prime Minister (Dickon A.T. Mitchell) said, flattened, devastated, Armageddon-like,” Lyons said.
The main island of Grenada to the south was less damaged, and its health care system and hotels are now back up and running.
If their shipment had taken a direct route, it would have been coming through a week earlier and potentially faced the storm.
“As that storm barreled through, it sat safely in the port of Trinidad and Tobago,” Swanson said. “It looks like a blessing in disguise that it sat there safely.”
Now those supplies have added importance.
“The equipment that was already needed is now more needed than ever,” Lyons said.
For instance, it contains 20 wheelchairs refurbished by another charity and orthopedic supplies like splints that “will come in handy right now,” Swanson said.
With the nonprofit volunteers and new friends, the container was unloaded July 10 and then hauled up the steep hill from the port to the main hospital in St. George’s. But that is just the beginning, Lyons and Swanson said.
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Publish date : 2024-07-11 13:00:00
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