US To Provide $24 Million For Caribbean Countries Hit by Hurricane Melissa

• The United States is providing US$24Mn in emergency assistance for Jamaica, Haiti, the Bahamas and Cuba after the countries were hit by Hurricane Melissa last week, the State Department said.
• The department deployed teams to help with the emergency response and assess humanitarian needs after the Category 5 hurricane sowed widespread devastation, cut off communities and killed at least 50 people across the Caribbean. The Trump administration has now authorised $12Mn assistance for Jamaica, $8.5Mn for Haiti and $500,000 for the Bahamas, the State Department stated.
• Another $3Mn was authorised for Cuba and is being distributed with the help of the Catholic Church, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a declaration of humanitarian need for the country and said Washington would seek to deliver aid directly to the country's people.
• President Donald Trump has taken a hard line toward the communist-run island. His administration said it would enforce a ban on U.S. tourism to Cuba while supporting an economic embargo of the country. The State Department is working with the church to ensure it can get access to U.S.-funded supplies to distribute to the people of Cuba, the official said. The Cuban government has not requested assistance from Washington, the official added.
• Hurricane Melissa is the largest natural disaster to hit the region since President Donald Trump's administration dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development earlier this year. Disaster response is now managed by the State Department, which has sent Disaster Assistance Response Teams to several countries to coordinate the aid response and deployed specialist Urban Search and Rescue teams to Jamaica.

(Source: Reuters)