50 dead as Caribbean digs out from Hurricane Melissa / Photo: Ricardo Makyn - AFP
50 dead as Caribbean digs out from Hurricane Melissa
Jamaican officials announced plans Saturday to set up multiple field hospitals as it recovers from Hurricane Melissa, with the death toll numbering at least 50 across the Caribbean -- and expected to rise.
The island's confirmed deaths remain at 19 as of Saturday, though Health Minister Christopher Tufton told a briefing "I would imagine it's more... because there are still places that we have had difficulties reaching."
Haiti's Civil Protection department meanwhile said at least 31 people have been killed there as a result of the storm.
Melissa tore across Jamaica as a ferocious top-level Category 5 hurricane, the most powerful storm ever recorded on the island, with sustained winds peaking at 185 miles (nearly 300 kilometers) per hour while drenching the country with torrential rain.
Hospitals in western Jamaica were particularly hard-hit, prompting officials to deploy several field hospitals in the coming days to shore up health responses.
The first such field hospital -- in Black River, the capital of the hardest hit province -- "is expected to be delivered sometime tomorrow and immediately we'll begin to deploy and to set up that facility," Tufton said.
"That facility will come fully equipped, which will include an operating theater and other critical diagnostic equipment, and some team members to support the local team," he said, adding officials expect the hospital to be up and running in the coming week.
Additional hospitals are expected to pop up with aid from the World Health Organization and several countries, including Spain, Canada and India, Tufton said.
D.Zahrani--al-Hayat
