Canadian sailors readying devastated Caribbean island for hurricane Maria

HALIFAX — The crew of a Canadian warship helping residents of a small Caribbean island devastated by hurricane Irma is being forced to suspend their mission now that hurricane Maria is bearing down on the region.

Cmdr. Gord Noseworthy said the Halifax-based frigate HMCS St. John’s is slated to depart South Caicos on Wednesday evening after its 230-member crew spent several days cleaning debris from streets, delivering water and helping restore power to the hurricane-ravaged island.

“The shift is quite honestly on preparing now for hurricane Maria and hoping that we can get them put into a better state, such that they can withstand that storm and hopefully not fall back right to where we found them five days ago,” Noseworthy said from aboard the ship, which was stationed four kilometres offshore.

“The leading edge of storm Maria could be in this area on Thursday, with the eye of the storm in the vicinity on Friday, and finally the trailing edge of the storm on Saturday.”

Noseworthy, the ship’s commanding officer, said he plans to return to the island on Sunday, once Maria moves on.

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Preparations for the storm include building shelters around key pieces of equipment, such as generators.

The commander said the 21-square-kilometre island of roughly 1,100 residents was razed by Irma.

When the ship arrived late last week, there was debris and power lines strewn across the streets, and many roofs had been ripped off of buildings, he said.

“It’s a state of disarray. There’s everything from aluminum roofs to siding. The aim now is to get all that cleaned up and secured prior to hurricane Maria, otherwise it can become flying projectiles with the next oncoming hurricane,” said Noseworthy, adding that much debris has been cleared since the navy arrived.

He said the ship is capable of turning salt water into fresh water, and about 10,000 litres of water has been delivered by helicopter.

Noseworthy said his crew has been helping to restore power and cleaning debris from the local school.

He said the power has been coming back online, residents now have water and there is cellphone coverage again.

Island residents have been grateful for Canada’s help, he said.

“They’re very appreciative of the fact that we are there and conducting the operations that we’re conducting to give them a hand and help them get back to some form of normalcy,” said Noseworthy, adding that crew members have been working under sunny skies thus far in temperatures hovering around 35 C.

Irma cut a path of devastation across the northern Caribbean earlier this month, leaving at least 10 dead and thousands homeless.

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Aly Thomson, The Canadian Press