PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CMC) – A Caribbean Community (Caricom) delegation headed by Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit arrived here yesterday for talks with Haitian officials following the widespread destruction caused by Hurricane Matthew when it tore through the French-speaking Caricom nation last week.

The storm, regarded as one of the strongest to hit the Caribbean in the past decade, was blamed for more than 900 deaths.

Skerrit, who is also the Caricom Chairman, spoke with the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) after receiving a short briefing from the team of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) that had arrived here over the last weekend.

He said the delegation received a number of recommendations from the CDEMA team, including getting aid quickly and directly to the affected communities, of Les Cayes and Jeremie, instead of having it go through Port-au-Prince, which slows down the process.

“I believe some of the areas we can look at is getting the students back into school as soon as possible. Also to underwriting a school feeding programme,” he said, noting that getting clean water to affected areas remains a top priority of Caricom.

“So we will be coordinating with the heads of Governments this evening, based on our information here and our interaction with the Government of Haiti,” Skerrit said.

He told CMC that in the medium to long term plan “we are going to have ensure that we pit in a place a very strong and robust strategy and programme to go beyond the relief phase of our response to disasters. Because there will have to be some long-term programmes and projects which we will have to put in place for them to sustain themselves…,” Skerrit said.

Skerrit, who is accompanied by Caricom Secretary General Irwin La Rocque; CDEMA CEO Ronald Jackson; and the Dominica Government advisor on disaster management; Cecil Shillingford, will during his stay here meet with Prime Minister Enex Jean-Charles.

He will also meet with Interim President Jocelerme Privert and later tour some of the affected areas.

La Rocque told CMC that the Caricom Disaster Relief Units will remain here for the next three weeks, noting that while Haiti is receiving overseas assistance “we have to try to get them to where they are most needed.

“This is where we are going to be focusing our attention in the immediate immediate future. There’s a small team in Port-au-Prince to coordinate at the national level and a team will be in La Cayes and in Jeremie to assist in those provinces getting food.

“We will have someone on the ground at least for the next three weeks to ensure that it reaches the impact it is required to reach,” he said, reiterating Skerrit’s position that the regional grouping will be in the future examining long-term strategies for Haiti.

The delegation will also visit the Bahamas, where, while there were no fatalities, the storm caused widespread damage on the chain of islands.