CARISA LEE

carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt

A to­tal of 50 De­fence Force mem­bers from this coun­try are cur­rent­ly on the ground in St Vin­cent and the Grenadines pro­vid­ing aid for the coun­try’s cit­i­zens as they con­tin­ue to deal with the af­fects from the La Soufrière vol­cano erup­tion.

Mem­bers from the T&T Reg­i­ment, Coast Guard, Air Guard and Re­serves will stay on the is­land for ap­prox­i­mate­ly two weeks in the first in­stance.

But ac­cord­ing to the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Stu­art Young, “things are flu­id and can change when they are on the ground.”

The con­tin­gent left on the Galleon’s Pas­sage just af­ter 7 am yes­ter­day and will be ac­com­pa­nied by a Coast Guard ves­sel to be used as a for­ward op­er­at­ing base for the mem­bers.

“To en­sure that we don’t be­come any more of a bur­den on St. Vin­cent and the Grenadines, op­er­ate well from it,” Young said.

A soldier uses the back of a colleuge to fill out his Immigration form before departing to St Vincent, yesterday.

SHIRLEY BAHADUR

Al­so on board were rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the T&T Red Cross So­ci­ety, the Caribbean Pub­lic Health Agency (CARPHA) and mem­bers of the me­dia.

Young thanked the del­e­ga­tion for ris­ing to the oc­ca­sion and en­ter­ing a coun­try with an ac­tive vol­cano all in the mid­dle of a pan­dem­ic.

“Pleas­es be safe, con­tin­ue to ex­er­cise your pro­to­cols as best as you can,” he said.

He al­so re­mind­ed the con­tin­gent that they were rep­re­sent­ing this coun­try. “Do not dis­ap­point us,” he warned. “Con­tin­ue to do what you’re trained to do,” he added.

Ac­cord­ing to the min­is­ter, by to­mor­row an­oth­er ves­sel with hu­man­i­tar­i­an sup­plies will sail to the is­land and based on feed­back from St Vin­cent’s Prime Min­is­ter Ralph Gon­salves, Vin­cen­tians need­ed wa­ter, as ash fall con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed thi­er sup­ply.

Young said T&T cit­i­zens have do­nat­ed a sig­nif­i­cant amount of wa­ter and they were work­ing on sup­ply­ing more.

Soldiers pack boxes on the Galleons Passage to take to St Vincent, yesterday.

SHIRLEY BAHADUR

“We are cur­rent­ly try­ing to arrange some ma­rine ves­sels, wa­ter tankers to take wa­ter up to St Vin­cent,” he said.

On the Galleon’s Pas­sage , there were three filled wa­ter tanks, buck­ets and cas­es of bot­tled wa­ter.

Oth­er re­lief items such as mat­tress­es, food, clean­ing, sim­ple med­ical and hy­giene sup­plies and toi­letries were on board.

To­day, the ves­sel will bring back 40 T&T na­tion­als who will be im­me­di­ate­ly quar­an­tined on ar­rival.

Young told the troops to be safe and that they will con­tin­ue to be sup­port­ed from here at home.

The contingent of Defence Force officers before leaving for St Vincent on te Galleons Passage, yesterday.

SHIRLEY BAHADUR