Health City Cayman Islands is part of a relief effort being coordinated by the Cayman Islands Government to send supplies, medicines and medical staff to Anguilla – a fellow British Overseas Territory.
Dr. Chandy Abraham, CEO and Medical Director of the Caribbean tertiary care hospital, said that Health City and the Cayman Islands community have been shocked and saddened at the level of devastation in the northeastern Caribbean.
“We want to send our support to our Caribbean family who have been impacted by Hurricane Irma,” said Dr. Abraham, who added that the Caymanian community is being mobilized to provide aid and relief to help the affected islands in their recovery efforts.
Dr. Abraham explained that medical relief efforts will center first on the critically ill and injured in Anguilla, where one person is known to have died as a result of Hurricane Irma and housing and infrastructure have been severely damaged.
Health City is sending three staff members and over US$30,000 in medicines to the hurricane-ravaged island. The Health City personnel join with staff from the Cayman Islands Health Services Authority, Hazard Management and the Department of Environmental Health to form the relief mission.
A Cayman Airways flight loaded with relief supplies, medical and disaster management staff, medicines, water and non-perishable foods departed Grand Cayman for Anguilla on Tuesday, September 12 at 11am.
Cayman Islands Premier Alden McLaughlin announced the government-led relief mission on Monday, September 11 – the 13th anniversary of the landfall of Category 5 Hurricane Ivan in the Cayman Islands in 2004. The island of Grand Cayman was severely damaged by that storm.
Mr. McLaughlin said, “Most of us know too well the devastation and despair that arises in the wake of a hurricane, especially those of us who lived through our own catastrophic storms of Ivan in 2004 and Paloma in 2008. We know well it was our neighbors from the region and our families and friends who ensured that we got much-needed supplies. It is time for us to pay it forward.”
The relief team from the Cayman Islands is scheduled to remain in Anguilla for two weeks.
The Cayman Islands Government has also provided post-Irma assistance to fellow British Overseas Territories the British Virgin Islands and the Turks & Caicos Islands in the form of police equipment and staff.