Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Hurricane death toll rises as Jamaica aid effort struggles
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hello on Reginie Vi Dinnardon. We begin this hour in Jamaica,
- 0:03Speaker 1: where a BBC team has reached one of the worst
- 0:06Speaker 1: affected parts of the country, which was practically destroyed by
- 0:10Speaker 1: Hurricane Melissa. The main hospital is one of several buildings
- 0:14Speaker 1: badly damaged in the town of Black River, not far
- 0:17Speaker 1: from where the hurricane made landfall. While Jamaica's Prime minister
- 0:21Speaker 1: described the town as ground zero of the tragedy, thousands
- 0:24Speaker 1: of people in Black River remain without power. Officials say
- 0:27Speaker 1: that they're struggling to get supplies to areas like those
- 0:30Speaker 1: which are the hardest hit well across the Caribbean. Hurricane
- 0:34Speaker 1: Melissa has claimed at least forty lives, nineteen in Jamaica.
- 0:38Speaker 1: The fear is that they could be more dead once
- 0:40Speaker 1: remote areas are reached. Nedatorfique reports from Black River, where
- 0:45Speaker 1: people are being forced to scavenge for food.
- 0:49Speaker 2: Black River is now in pieces, people's homes, livelihoods, prized possessions,
- 0:54Speaker 2: torn apart and reduced to piles of debris. Hurricane Melissa's
- 0:59Speaker 2: ferocious one hundred to eighty five mile per hour winds
- 1:02Speaker 2: didn't spare any part of town. Days on Jamaicans here
- 1:07Speaker 2: say they are in full survival mode after living through
- 1:10Speaker 2: the most harrowing experience of their lives. As the commercial
- 1:13Speaker 2: hub of Saint Elizabeth Parish, Dozens traveled from nearby villages
- 1:17Speaker 2: to scavenge for goods.
- 1:19Speaker 3: The situation in Black River is absolutely desperate, and no
- 1:22Speaker 3: help has arrived so far, and so people have been
- 1:25Speaker 3: picking through the rubble for any supplies that they can
- 1:27Speaker 3: get their hands on to survive until meaningful aid comes
- 1:31Speaker 3: in the next few days.
- 1:32Speaker 2: We don't have no access to no money, nor lead,
- 1:35Speaker 2: no gas, no food. No, we don't have dat me
- 1:38Speaker 2: a carrict.
- 1:39Speaker 4: We need help, help, We need sheets, we need food,
- 1:42Speaker 4: we need tens, we need money, car supplies. I lose
- 1:46Speaker 4: everything everything. How have the last few days been?
- 1:49Speaker 2: Here?
- 1:50Speaker 4: God real?
- 1:52Speaker 2: Further into town, we found Sharon Johnson trying to access
- 1:56Speaker 2: her destroyed shop and contemplating her future.
- 2:00Speaker 5: Hard to pick up these pieces? You know you're gonna
- 2:03Speaker 5: start all over.
- 2:04Speaker 2: Did you imagine when they talked about category five that
- 2:07Speaker 2: this would happen?
- 2:09Speaker 1: No?
- 2:10Speaker 3: I know we should take cush and and we need
- 2:12Speaker 3: to take crush and what we never know what's gonna
- 2:16Speaker 3: take place?
- 2:17Speaker 4: Are something gonna take place like this?
- 2:19Speaker 5: We never know.
- 2:23Speaker 2: Overhead signs that the first wave of disaster relief may
- 2:26Speaker 2: soon be on its way. While we were there, military
- 2:29Speaker 2: arrived on the scene to control the crowds and support
- 2:32Speaker 2: recovery operations. The town's hospital is severely damaged, losing its
- 2:38Speaker 2: roof and power. Doctors have been working there since before
- 2:42Speaker 2: the storm hit and are worried about the scale of
- 2:44Speaker 2: the need.
- 2:45Speaker 1: It's a great last year here right now. Children are
- 2:48Speaker 1: all there medical attention and we are unable to provide
- 2:51Speaker 1: us medical service to them at this moment.
- 2:55Speaker 2: Jamaicans with family and Black River will have seen the
- 2:58Speaker 2: total devastation and will be wondering if their loved ones survived,
- 3:02Speaker 2: with fears that the death toll could increase. Those answers
- 3:05Speaker 2: can't come soon enough. NETTATOFIC BBC News, Black River, Jamaica Well.
- 3:11Speaker 1: The first flight carrying aid from the UK has now
- 3:14Speaker 1: arrived in Jamaica after Hurrican Melissa left parts of the
- 3:18Speaker 1: island as we've seen just then in ruins will. The
- 3:20Speaker 1: aid includes three thousand emergency shelters and fifteen hundred solar
- 3:24Speaker 1: powered Lantin's our Jamaica correspondent reports from Kingston.
- 3:30Speaker 5: The busiest place in Jamaica. Right now is Kingston's main airport.
- 3:35Speaker 5: Teams of specialists from around the world flying into help.
- 3:39Speaker 5: Search and rescue, medics, recovery teams going out to communities
- 3:44Speaker 5: still isolated and days away from help. On the grounds
- 3:48Speaker 5: further up the peninsula where this airport is actually located
- 3:52Speaker 5: is still under an evacuation order, but it's right here
- 3:55Speaker 5: right now. The aid, which is critical to help people
- 3:59Speaker 5: in the most impact to the area for western side
- 4:01Speaker 5: of the island, is being delivered right now. Paletts of
- 4:05Speaker 5: humanitarian aid are being unloaded this flight with relief from
- 4:09Speaker 5: the UK, part of a seven million pound package to
- 4:13Speaker 5: help the Caribbean nation. The United Kingdom High Commissioner to
- 4:17Speaker 5: Jamaica is Alicia Herbert.
- 4:20Speaker 4: We are supplying kits and you're supplying you shelter kits,
- 4:24Speaker 4: and are supplying lanterns and other kind of basic needs
- 4:27Speaker 4: or relief items as it were. We are deploying experts
- 4:32Speaker 4: and work alongside in Jamaican government and other partners, and
- 4:34Speaker 4: we are also working with organizations like the WFB and
- 4:39Speaker 4: indeed the International Red Cross.
- 4:41Speaker 5: This kind of aid isn't just coming from the international community,
- 4:45Speaker 5: but also from closer to home. Jamaicans are organizing for themselves,
- 4:51Speaker 5: with people dropping off essentials care packages for those who
- 4:54Speaker 5: need it most at the airport. The other side of
- 4:58Speaker 5: this disaster is also being played out the repatriation of
- 5:02Speaker 5: thousands of stranded tourists the British government, transporting UK citizens
- 5:08Speaker 5: from resorts are now on their way home. For them,
- 5:12Speaker 5: this is over, but for the nearly three million Jamaicans,
- 5:16Speaker 5: it's just the start. Nick Davis, BBC News, Kingston, Jamaica.
- 5:22Speaker 1: Nick Davis in Nick Kingston, now with the latest as
- 5:24Speaker 1: aide is starting to reach some areas where it's needed
- 5:28Speaker 1: desperately after the hurricane