NEW YORK–Caribbean na­tion­als in New York have mo­bilised ur­gent re­lief ef­forts to get need­ed sup­plies to is­lands in the East­ern Caribbean af­fect­ed by dead­ly rains and flood­ing on Christ­mas Eve and Christ­mas Day.At least 19 peo­ple were killed and there was ma­jor in­fra­struc­ture dam­age in St Lu­cia, St Vin­cent and the Grenadines, and Do­mini­ca.

The St Lu­cia House Foun­da­tion and the St Lu­cia con­sulate in New York said re­lief do­na­tions–which are due to be de­liv­ered to the is­land to­day–in­clude chil­dren's and adults' cloth­ing, blan­kets, shoes, school sup­plies and di­a­pers.

"St Lu­cians in the tri-state pulled to­geth­er with gen­er­ous do­na­tions in the af­ter­math of Hur­ri­cane Tomas a few months ago, and I have no doubt that we will see them du­pli­cate their last ef­fort in as­sist­ing this time around," said Cur­tis Brown, of the St Lu­cia House Foun­da­tion, which is work­ing with the St Lu­cia con­sulate in New York to de­ter­mine the im­me­di­ate needs on the is­land and de­vel­op the list of re­lief sup­plies.

"Our prayers are with all those trau­ma­tised by the dam­age caused and in des­per­ate need of food, med­ical sup­plies, wa­ter and shel­ter," said foun­da­tion pres­i­dent Matthias Wilkie."We hope that the gov­ern­ment, agen­cies, church­es and in­di­vid­u­als will re­spond gen­er­ous­ly to help all those af­fect­ed in or­der to re­cov­er and re­build their shat­tered lives."

In St Vin­cent, flood­ing and land­slides caused by the heavy rains killed at least nine peo­ple and in­jured five oth­ers. Among the dead was Cass­ian Gon­salves, a cousin of St Vin­cent Prime Min­is­ter Ralph Gon­salves, who died on De­cem­ber 24 when a land­slide crashed through his house.The ex­tent of dam­age from rain and floods in St Vin­cent and the Grenadines and Do­mini­ca are be­ing as­sessed by Na­tion­al Emer­gency Op­er­a­tions Cen­tres re­port­ed the Caribbean Dis­as­ter Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency.

Dozens of homes and at least two ho­tels on Do­mini­ca were evac­u­at­ed be­cause of the dan­ger of land­slides and sev­er­al roads were blocked by mud, ac­cord­ing to the AP.Re­lief ef­forts to St Vin­cent and the Grenadines are be­ing co-or­di­nat­ed by that coun­try's Man­hat­tan con­sulate.

Oth­er di­as­po­ra com­mu­ni­ties, such as the Caribbean-Amer­i­can res­i­dents of Hous­ton, are pitch­ing in, The Greater Hous­ton Gar­i­fu­na-Amer­i­can Part­ner­ship sched­uled an event over the week­end to col­lect re­lief sup­plies for St Vin­cent and St Lu­cia flood vic­tims."We came to­geth­er in the af­ter­math of Hur­ri­cane Tomas three years ago and were able to ship over 1,500 pounds of clothes, wa­ter, first aid sup­plies, food, etc. to aid in re­cov­ery," said event or­gan­is­er Nicke Joseph.

The Hous­ton Caribbean Fes­ti­val Ra­dio Sta­tion was due to hold a live broad­cast from a re­lief event at the city's D'Vy­bz night­club.The Caribbean Dis­as­ter Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency said Na­tion­al Emer­gency Op­er­a­tions Cen­tres had been ac­ti­vat­ed in Do­mini­ca, St Vin­cent and the Grenadines and St Lu­cia, and "dam­age and needs as­sess­ments are be­ing con­duct­ed in each coun­try."