On Monday, September 19th, Hurricane Maria started hit the island of Dominica after rapidly speeding up from a Category 1 to a Category 5 hurricane. Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit addressed his nation from Antigua Thursday afternoon, saying the storm was “brutal” to the Caribbean island. He confirmed 15 deaths – a toll that’s likely to rise as word comes from isolated villages – in the country, with at least 20 more missing. Tens of thousands of people have been left without power or means of communication, and the assessment of the damage is just beginning to be done.
Standby Task Force has been activated by UN OCHA to consolidate and geolocate imagery for the island of Dominica. In addition we will also be collecting information on Urgent Needs. This information will then be added to a map that is already under development.
The information produced during this activation will be used to get an overview of impact and severity and help the team on the grounds in their coordination and relief efforts.
We already have a Slack Channel dedicated for the purposes of this deployment, and it would be great if you could join us there! If you are an SBTF member who isn’t in our Slack Channels, you can sign up here. It’s easy!
This post was originally published on Standby Task Force.
