Prime Minister Dr Timothy Harris has announced that the Government of St Kitts and Nevis will give a total of $2.5 million in hurricane relief aid to Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica and St. Maarten.
This gift is being given in addition to in-kind support and services, which are already being offered by St Kitts and Nevis, such as the use of the RLB International Airport as a staging platform for relief efforts into impacted countries; health and hospital services; free high school enrollment for students registered for upcoming CXC exams; technical support for electricity restoration, and Coast Guard transportation support.
Prime Minister Harris thanked Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit for “his kind consideration” in making a pledge of five hundred thousand dollars toward St Kitts and Nevis’ post-Hurricane Irma recovery efforts.
Skerrit had announced this pledge when he visited the Federation on Sunday, September 10 as part of an OECS delegation to assess damages and show solidarity in the wake of Hurricane Irma.
The Federation of St Kitts and Nevis sustained estimated damages of $53.2 million from the powerful Category 5 Hurricane Irma.
Dr Harris says the Government of St Kitts and Nevis has since declined Prime Minister Skerrit’s pledged donation and will give one million dollars to Dominica to assist with its recovery efforts in the wake of the catastrophic Category 5 Hurricane Maria, which made landfall there last Monday, September 18. A total preliminary assessment of $88.5 million has been attributed to damages sustained in the Federation of St Kitts and Nevis as a result of Hurricane Maria.
