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Hurricane Maria: Dominica Aerial Pictures Show ‘Total Destruction’

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nbcnews.com - by Yuliya Talmazan - September 20, 2017

Dominica's main hospital "took a beating" from Hurricane Maria while buildings serving as shelters had their roofs ripped off, an official said as the first images showing the devastation unleashed by the storm emerged Wednesday.

The Category 5 storm hit the tiny Caribbean island late Monday, cutting off communications and leaving the rest of the world in the dark about the storm’s aftermath.

Video footage shot by the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency shows large swaths of the island suffered heavy damage, with roofs missing and debris scattered for hundreds of yards.

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looptt.com - September 20, 2017

In the hours before disaster response teams could begin the journey by sea or air to Dominica on Tuesday, radio operators on the island and their peers around the world were able to get out communications to give an early picture of the state of the island after the passage of Hurricane Maria on monday night.

A Facebook page was set up to stream the communications to anxious family and friends desperate to hear news of loved ones on the island that was battered by Maria's Category Five winds and rains.

At the end of a long day, one of the page's administrators, Michelle Guenard, gave a summary of what was learnt from the amateur radio broadcasts.

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washingtonpost.com - by Anthony Faiola - September 20, 2017

Relief agencies reached the hard-hit Caribbean nation of Dominica by air and sea on Wednesday after a direct hit by Hurricane Maria caused massive damage to homes and buildings, washed out roads, upended water pipelines and left at least seven people dead. 

Officials estimated that 70 to 80 percent of Dominica’s structures sustained storm damage, ranging from ripped-off roofs to near-total destruction. All intact public buildings were being converted into emergency shelters for scores of homeless residents. Americans, Canadians and others were waiting to be evacuated from the devastated island, officials said.

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looptt.com - September 19, 2017

Regional agencies have kicked into high gear to render aid to Dominica, which was hard hit by Hurricane Maria on Monday night into Tuesday morning.

Executive Director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), Ronald Jackson, outlined the immediate response in the hours since the Category 5 hurricane ripped through the Nature Isle, tearing roofs off and flooding roads and villages.

Barbados will be the hub for the Dominica disaster response, which has seen a CDEMA damage assessment personnel fly out with a Regional Security System (RSS) team. In addition, members of the Rapid Assessment team, search and rescue personnel and a communications kit will leave via military air transport this evening.

So too will a CDEMA team on board a vessel from the Barbados Coast Guard, along with personnel from the Barbados Fire Service and part of the CARICOM Disaster Relief Unit. Units will also be deployed from St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

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Roseau, the capital of Dominica, suffered devastating damage from Hurricane Maria. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images

Rescue teams struggle to reach first Caribbean victims, with at least seven dead and population stranded without power, running water or communications

theguardian.com - by Claire Phipps - September 21, 2017

Dominica – the first island hit by the full category-five force of Hurricane Maria – is “in a daze”, officials have said, cut off from its Caribbean neighbours in the wake of a storm that destroyed properties, silenced communications and cut power and running water.

Seven people have so far been confirmed dead in Dominica but that toll is expected to rise as rescue teams make their way to inaccessible parts of the island.

Hartley Henry, an adviser to the prime minister, Roosevelt Skerrit, said there had been a “tremendous loss of housing and public buildings”. There was no electricity and virtually no means of communicating with the outside world, he said.

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