PM addresses nation

Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves has cut short his trip to the United Kingdom, to return to St Vincent and the Grenadines, at this time of national disaster.{{more}}

Gonsalves, who returned to the country yesterday evening, said in a national address on the National Broadcasting Corporation that the level of damage amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars.

He said when he first heard of the disaster, he said he was driven to tears.

“I never ever expected at the end of a year to have such unusual weather,” he said.

The prime minister said the bad weather of April 2011 was horrific, but this one is even more severe.

He expressed solidarity with the people of St Lucia, Domincia and Haiti who have also had severe losses as a result of bad weather.

He advised that although today (Friday) is not a bank holiday, in an effort to keep traffic on the roads to a minimum to expedite the clean up process, only essential services and organizations such as banks, credit unions, supermarkets, the Central Water and Sewerage Authority (CWSA), the St Vincent Electricity Services Ltd (VINLEC), and certain other government departments, should open. He said private business owners should advise their employees which ones are required to come in to work to assist with the clean up process.

In a call to the National Broadcasting Corporation radio on Christmas Day, Gonsalves had also expressed his condolences to families who lost loved ones, property and belongings in the disaster.

“We have come through difficult times in the past and we’ll come through this difficult set of challenges but we have to work together. We have to put all sorts of differences aside and we have to move in love and caring for one another,” the prime minister declared.(BK)