BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — The Barbados-based Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) says the Caribbean Community (Caricom) response to Haiti following the passage of Hurricane Matthew last month, has been a “resounding success”.

In a statement, CDEMA said it provided emergency relief supplies and early recovery operations in the two most affected areas of Les Cayes and Jérémie after the storm hit the country on October 4.

“As part of a legacy intervention, Caricom supported the rehabilitation of the Ecole Nationale De Sicard de Pelerin School in Les Cayes and a feeding programme for the students for a period of two weeks,” the statement, said, noting that the response also provided US$53,000 in relief supplies to 805 families.

CDEMA also noted that Dominica and Jamaica sent in containers and cash donations of US$100,000 to support Caricom efforts and that the Turks and Caicos Islands provided cash donations of US$50,000 and personnel to also aid the recovery and relief process.

“The success of the mission would not have been possible if it wasn’t for the personnel, the regional response teams, the contributions made by CDEMA participating states, regional and international partners including the United States Southern Command and the World Food Programme (WFP),” said CDEMA’s Executive Director Ronald Jackson.

“On behalf of the CDEMA System and the wider Caribbean Community, I wish to recognise and thank them all for their contributions,” he said also praising Digicel Business (Barbados) for demonstrating their support by offsetting the costs for calls and data usage incurred by CDEMA’s staff during the response period.

“The efforts spearheaded by CDEMA underscore the importance and urgency in which the region needs to continue to strengthen its capacity. We need to identify sustainable mechanisms to finance these systems so we can continue to serve the needs of our participating States in a predictable way”, he added.

Hurricane Matthew, the fifth named hurricane of the 2016 Atlantic Hurricane season, was formed near the Windward Islands on September 28, 2016.

Matthew provided significant impact to Haiti as a powerful Category Four hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale with maximum sustained winds up to 140 mph (220 km/h) with higher gusts.

The Haitian Government reported that Hurricane Matthew resulted in 546 deaths, more than 1.4 million people being in urgent need of humanitarian assistance and 120,000 families having their homes destroyed or damaged.