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St. Vincent & Grenadines

St. Vincent and the Grenadines: Floods - DREF Operations Update No. 1, Operation n° MDRVC003

Attachments

Timeframe covered by this update: 1 December 2016 to 25 January 2017

Operation start date: 29 November 2016

Operation timeframe: 3 months (operation end date is 13 March 2017)

Overall operation budget: 155,905 Swiss francs (CHF)

N° of people affected: 25,000 people

Summary of major revisions made to emergency plan of action:

It has been difficult to find the time to conduct the Jamaica Red Cross-supported psychological support (PSS) workshop for the volunteers as well as other project activities; moreover, the holiday season caused a delay in the procurement of the goods, which pushed back their delivery date. Consequently, the operation has been extended by one month in order to complete the remaining activities, and it will now end on 13 March 2017.

A. Situation analysis

Description of the disaster

On Tuesday, 29 November 2016, St. Vincent and the Grenadines was impacted by heavy rains, which resulted in flooding and landslides in several communities. Sandy Bay in the north-eastern area of St. Vincent was the most severely affected community; however, the villages of Magum, Orange Hill, Overland, London, Point, Owia and Fancy in the north-east and Spring Village, Coulls Hill, Troumaca, Rose Bank, Sharpes, Fitz Hughes and Chateaubelair in the north-west of St. Vincent were also impacted.

Safe drinking water has been restored to all of the affected communities; however, the storage and disposal of garbage is still inadequate, and it is being addressed by the National Society’s hygiene promotion campaigns. Psychosocial support is becoming more urgent, and the training and deployment of trainees will assist in alleviating this challenge. Lastly, the Sandy Bay disaster response team has been reactivated to deal with the mobilization of the community regarding training and response and to manage the recovery and rehabilitation programmes.