Perilous Times and Climate Change
2 November 2010 Last updated at 11:49 ET
Hurricane kills 14 people in St Lucia
Landslides have wrecked roads in St Lucia
BBC - At least 14 people are now known to have died on the Caribbean
island of St Lucia after Hurricane Tomas triggered landslides,
officials say.
Tourism minister Allan Chastanet told local radio that the southern
town of Soufriere had been worst hit and resembled "a war zone".
The storm, which struck at the weekend, also battered the island of St
Vincent.
Tomas, now a tropical storm, is veering towards Haiti where thousands
are still homeless after January's earthquake.
In St Lucia, Prime Minister Stephenson King declared a state of
emergency and appealed for international assistance, local media
reported.
Bridges were destroyed, and some of the worst-hit communities in the
south could only be reached by boat.
"Recovery efforts are very slow. Our efforts to get help to the
ravished community have been weakened as a string of fires in homes
brings us to our knees," a firefighter in the capital Castries told the
BBC.
He said the water mains were empty and that trying to get water to the
fires "was an exercise in near futility" due to the mountainous
landscape.
Tomas, downgraded from a hurricane on Sunday evening, lashed islands in
the eastern Caribbean with sustained winds of 75mph (120km/h).
Projected path
On Tuesday it was about 355 miles (570km) south of the Haitian capital
Port-au-Prince and moving west at 12mph (19km/h) with sustained winds
of 50mph (85km/h).
Forecasters have warned that Tomas could strengthen again to a
hurricane and that parts of Haiti are in its projected path for later
in the week.
"Right now they just need to stay tuned - this is the stage to be
aware," said John Cangialosi at the US Hurricane Center in Miami.
UN humanitarian co-ordinator Nigel Fisher said relief workers in Haiti
were trying to gather emergency shelter, water and sanitation supplies.
"We need as much of it as possible in place before Tomas hits," he said.
Imogen Wall, of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian
Affairs, said warehouses in Haiti were being emptied of rope and
tarpaulins to protect those in the camps.
The US Navy ship Iwo Jima is steaming toward Haiti to be on hand if
emergency relief is needed, US officials said.