SVG labelled as a model for disaster recovery

St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) can be used as a model for recovering from national disasters, says this country’s Minister of Finance.

“Find another country in the world where one-third of the GDP is destroyed and 20% of the population is displaced, and I guarantee you that we did a better job of responding to Beryl than that country did, whatever that country, and I don’t want to compare, I’m just saying that we have to understand the magnitude of what we went through one year ago,” Minister Camillo Gonsalves said.

He was speaking on July, 21, 2025 at the launch of the Beryl Emergency Resilient Recovery Project (BERRY), at the conference room of the National Insurance Services (NIS). The minister said that hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the loss and damage amounted to 1% of the GDP of the United States of America (USA).

“…the richest country in the world, not 33% (of GDP) as was our case, 1%, and from 2005 to 2012/2013, eight years after the event, people were still homeless in New Orleans,” the Minister pointed out.

“ The last person left a trailer… a decade after the hurricane hit and many other people voted or decided

He noted that the population of New Orleans decreased by 30% in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and today, the legacies of that hurricane linger.

“There’re still destroyed and devastated areas… in the communities in New Orleans, social challenges have yet to return to pre-Katrina levels, crime, homelessness- the homeless situation remains acute, and the population of New Orleans has yet, 20 years later, to return to pre-Katrina size,” Gonsalves said.

He noted that after one year, in SVG- a small country with a small economy and a level of devastation that comparatively, is of a magnitude larger than what the United States of America went through- we have shown great progress.

“…if a hurricane hits your house, is the worst disaster ever. So, I don’t want to say, you know, ours is worse than theirs or whatever…I’m stepping back from the human tragedy and talking about the impact in a national sort of economic sense. One third of our GDP, 20% of our population and one year later, we have restored housing to over 4000 affected people, we have reduced the number of people in touristic accommodations from over 1000 to just a couple 100.

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