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#BTEditorial – A toast to the Commonwealth of Dominica

by Barbados Today
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Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

– Psalms 30.5

Across the blue waters of this Caribbean, there’s a collective sense of pride today as we can’t help but celebrate with the Nature Isle, beautiful Dominica, on this day of reflection and thanksgiving.

Two years ago, on Monday, September 18, in the dead of the night, Maria, a Category Five hurricane, the intensity of which we had not experienced before, unleashed 160-mile-per-hour winds and torrential rains.

The chilling Facebook posts from Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit during the horrific moments kept this region informed as we prayed for Dominica and daylight.

He said: “We do not know what is happening outside. We do not dare to lookout.

“All we are hearing is the sound of galvanize flying. The sound of the fury of the wind. As we pray for its end!

“The winds are merciless! We shall survive by the grace of God.”

A few minutes later, He then wrote that he thought his home had been damaged. Three words: “Rough! Rough! Rough!”

A half-hour later, he said: “My roof is gone. I am at the complete mercy of the hurricane. House is flooding.”

Seven minutes later he posted that he had been rescued.

Daybreak came and the horror unfolded.

Nothing was spared.

Houses, schools, buildings were flattened, roads were reduced to rubble, trees and crops uprooted, communications and electricity were wiped out.

In a few short hours, the only island paradise that it is claimed Christopher Columbus would still recognise 500 years later, was seemingly knocked back another eon.

More than 60 Dominicans died. Over 70, 000 people were displaced and damage was estimated at 226 per cent of the Dominican economy’s value. Recovery was expected to take decades.

The Caribbean spun into action, rushing to the aid of families, friends, colleagues, acquaintances. The world joined in and the tough process of rebuilding slowly began, one day at a time.

Two years later, the evidence of the sheer determination, faith and tenacity of the Dominican people has delivered the island from ruin to recovery.

Barbados TODAY correspondents on the ground in Roseau report that the island is abuzz with recovery.

Homes and lives have been rebuilt. Schools, bridges, roads and health centres have been rehabilitated.

The stained, brown, bending vegetation left in Maria’s wake has been replaced by verdant green.

Dominica has much celebrated.

A recent report published by PricewaterhouseCooper (PWC)  following an assessment conducted in July this year said: “Dominica beat the odds remarkably quick only two years later and is now “undergoing a long-term transition to a climate-resilient, service-based economy.”

Let this not be interpreted that all is perfectly in order and the rebuilding process may now be declared over.

We are clear that reconstruction is continuing in earnest and yes, there remain pockets of the country still in need help.

We urge the Government to ensure all citizens, all communities, all sectors get the help they need.

But today, it is fitting that Dominica takes pause to give thanks and praise.

To come back from utter devastation of a catastrophic cyclone is no simple feat.

But let it be signal to a world gearing up to meet at the United Climate Action Summit in New York which opens on Monday that the life-threatening impact of climate change is very real for the small island developing states in the Caribbean.

It disrupts families, societies and economies. Failing to act decisively is playing with our lives.

And here’s the second lesson — more so for the people of northern Bahamas struggling to return to normalcy after devastating Dorian.

With unity and determination, they, too, can bounce back- better, stronger and more resilient.

It is a lesson, told elsewhere in the pages of this newspaper, that we in this nation would do well to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest.

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