Guyanese family returns home from hurricane-ravaged Bahamas

A Guyanese family on Sunday evening returned home from the devastated Bahamas, following the category five hurricane, Dorian.

The five-member family arrived on Sunday evening at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) about 21:30h and was received by Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr Karen Cummings; Minister of State, Dawn Hastings-Williams and Director of the Civil Defence Commission (CDC), Lieutenant Colonel Kester Craig.
Thirty-five-year-old Orin Grimmond and his wife, 35-year-old Sholme Grimmond, arrived with their three children seven-year-old Seraphine, two-year-old Angeline and two-month-old Kemuel.
The family will be staying five nights at the Marriott Hotel before they travel to Lethem, Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) to meet their family members.
The trip will be sponsored by Trans Guyana Airways.
Welcoming home the family, Hastings-Williams said, “We are happy that they (the family) have arrived safely to their home. We welcome them and here we are at Marriott Hotel. We are very grateful for what Marriott is doing: they will be accommodating them for at least five days free and this encourages us as a Government to see that we can partner with the private sector, business persons (and) non-governmental organization.”
Orin Grimmond was quoted in sections of the media describing his experience as “horrifying”.
Meanwhile, the CDC Director explained that 25 other Guyanese have signalled their intent to return soon.
“We are now looking at (or) working out arrangements for the remainder of persons to travel when they would like to return to Guyana … once we get the flight arrangements in place and all the travel documents in place they will be accommodated to return to Guyana,” he explained.
On the other hand, Minister Cummings told the media that the Government has pledged some US$200,000 towards assistance for The Bahamas.
It was also noted that the Citizenship Ministry will be replacing documents such as lost or damaged birth certificates to help affected Guyanese in The Bahamas to travel.
On September 1, Dorian, a Category Five hurricane ripped through the small Caribbean archipelago with winds near 240 kilometres per hour (150 miles per hour), the US National Hurricane Center said.
A BBC report stated that Dorian was the most powerful storm to hit The Bahamas.
Bahamians are now facing severe health threats as they are trying to cope with the lack of access to toilets, clean water, and medication.
The Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) has set up an account here for persons who would like to make contributions towards assisting persons in The Bahamas.
Persons desirous of contributing financial donations are asked to make those contributions to the account named GBTI Hurricane Relief Fund-Bahamas # 011802963011.