The French government will be sending emergency aid totaling 220,000 euros to assist Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba following the passage of Hurricane Sandy recently.
The French Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica, announced that just over 50,000 euros will be handed over to the Office of Disaster Preparedness in the eastern parish of Portland.
“These funds will preferably be allocated to the drying up of several hospitals and school buildings, which were damaged by floods and rains and to measures aimed at controlling the extension of the dengue disease,” the embassy said in a release.
According to first counselor Jean-Luc Wertheimer, the embassy moved to respond given the extent of the damage suffered in the east and north-east end of Jamaica and as well as sections of Cuba and Haiti.
Of that total amount, the 60,000 euros to Cuba will go directly to non-governmental organizations in the city of Santiago de Cuba, the area that suffered most from the disaster, said Vincent Floreani, the deputy spokesman of the French Foreign Ministry.
The full extent of the storm’s havoc on Haiti was just beginning to emerge.
Extensive damage to crops throughout the southern part of the country, as well as the high potential for a spike in cases of cholera and other water-borne diseases, could mean Haiti will see the deadliest effects of Sandy in the coming weeks.
Haiti reported the highest death in the Caribbean, as swollen rivers and landslides claimed at least 52 lives, according to the country’s Civil Protection office.
The late season storm that roared across the Caribbean and then onto sections of the United States left behind billions of dollars in damages and claimed over l00 lives.
