UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The leader of Dominica is asking world leaders to lend his hurricane-ravaged nation military equipment to help it rebuild.

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit urged the UN General Assembly yesterday to “let these extraordinary events elicit extraordinary efforts to rebuild nations sustainably”.

Hurricane Maria swept over Dominica last Monday with 160 mph winds, killing 15 people on the small island and six others elsewhere in the Caribbean.

People around the world followed Skerrit’s gripping Facebook posts as he described his roof being torn off and his home filling with water.

Yesterday, he said “the desolation is beyond imagination” in the Caribbean island nation and made an impassioned case for the world to do more to help vulnerable countries cope with the effects of global warming.

Scientists have long predicted extreme weather would rise with temperatures.

Skerrit on Thursday said the country’s “urgent” focus was to get supplies to the affected people.

“We’re going to need all of the helicopter help we can get, because we need to ferry the supplies to people,” Skerrit stated.

The CCRIF SPC (formerly the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility) on Friday announced that it will be making a payout of US$19, 294,800 to Dominica under its tropical cyclone policy following the passage of Hurricane Maria.

The payout, according to the CCRIF, will be made within 14 days of the hurricane.

CCRIF is a segregated portfolio company owned, operated and registered in the Caribbean that was designed to provide quick liquidity to governments of the Caribbean and Central America following catastrophic impacts from tropical cyclones, earthquakes and excess rainfall.

It is the world’s first regional fund utilising parametric insurance, giving member governments the unique opportunity to purchase earthquake, hurricane and excess rainfall catastrophe coverage with lowest-possible pricing.

The company was developed under the technical leadership of the World Bank and with a grant from the Government of Japan.

— Additional reporting by CMC and AFP. See related articles on pages 22,23 & 26