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.”