UN ramps up hurricane relief in Caribbean after Hurricane Melissa

The Unit­ed Na­tions is con­tin­u­ing to sup­port gov­ern­ment-led re­lief ef­forts across the Caribbean two weeks af­ter Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa made land­fall, Deputy Spokesper­son Farhan Haq said to­day.

In Cu­ba, more than 54,000 peo­ple re­main dis­placed, in­clud­ing 7,500 in of­fi­cial shel­ters. Dam­age as­sess­ments have risen sharply, with over 600 health fa­cil­i­ties and 90,000 homes af­fect­ed. The World Food Pro­gramme (WFP) has as­sist­ed 140,000 peo­ple in shel­ters and sup­port­ed com­mu­ni­ty kitchens, while the Food and Agri­cul­ture Or­ga­ni­za­tion (FAO) dis­trib­utes agri­cul­tur­al tools and live­stock feed. The Pan Amer­i­can Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion (PA­HO) is de­liv­er­ing med­ical sup­plies, and the UN Pop­u­la­tion Fund (UNF­PA) is bol­ster­ing sex­u­al and re­pro­duc­tive health ser­vices.

In Ja­maica, ac­cess to com­mu­ni­ties is im­prov­ing, but shel­ter re­mains a con­cern. WFP has helped 9,000 peo­ple in West­more­land and St. Eliz­a­beth and plans to ex­tend cash sup­port to 90,000 house­holds.

In Haiti, Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa has claimed more than 40 lives. WFP is de­liv­er­ing 15-day ra­tions to heav­i­ly im­pact­ed ar­eas, in­clud­ing Pe­tit Goave, where over 40,000 peo­ple are re­ceiv­ing aid. So far, 60,000 peo­ple have been as­sist­ed, in­clud­ing an­tic­i­pa­to­ry sup­port ahead of the storm. The UN Hu­man­i­tar­i­an Air Ser­vice has added five new ac­cess points to reach iso­lat­ed com­mu­ni­ties.