PRIME Minister Andrew Holness yesterday started making contact with colleague prime ministers across the Caribbean who have been affected by Hurricane Irma, which left a path of death and destruction as it made its way across the Leewards Islands early yesterday morning.

“This is a period of assessment and planning to ascertain what Jamaica can do to assist our Caribbean brothers and sisters who have been significantly impacted by the most powerful hurricane to have emerged in the Atlantic Ocean,” a Jamaica House release quoted the prime minister.

In the meantime, Holness said he has been advised by Foreign Minister Senator Kamina Johnson Smith that inquiries have been made in relation to the welfare of Jamaicans on the affected islands.

Senator Johnson Smith said the ministry would continue to make inquiries through its embassies and consulates and will update the nation on the status of Jamaicans when the information becomes available.

Executive director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) Ronald Jackson has already briefed secretary general of Caricom Ambassador Irwin LaRocque and chair of Caricom, Dr Keith Mitchell, and has indicated that their first responders are all on standby subject to requests from affected islands.

Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 hurricane, formed in the Atlantic last week ad rapidly grew from a tropical disturbance to a major hurricane that now creates an unprecedented multi-state threat to potentially nine of the 18 CDEMA participating states. These include Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Dominica, Haiti, St Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, Turks & Caicos Islands, and the Virgin Islands.