A UK government charter flight is due to take off from Jamaica on Saturday, evacuating British citizens from the country after Hurricane Melissa.
The flight, due to take off from Norman Manly International Airport in Kingston, comes after the UK delivered aid as part of a £7.5 million regional emergency package earlier in the day.
Some of the funds will be used to match public donations of up to £1 million to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent, with King Charles and Queen Camilla among those who have donated.
Although aid has arrived in Jamaica in recent days, road closures have hampered distribution after Hurricane Melissa devastated parts of the island, killing at least 19 people.
The hurricane struck Jamaica on Tuesday as a Category 5 storm, one of the most powerful hurricanes ever seen in the Caribbean.
Melissa swept through the region over several days and left behind a trail of destruction and dozens of deaths. At least 30 people were killed in Haiti, and there were also floods and landslides in Cuba.
Jamaica's Information Minister Dana Morris Dixon said Friday that “there are entire communities that seem abandoned and areas that seem leveled.”
It was believed that around 8,000 British citizens were on the island at the time of the hurricane.
The UK Foreign Office has asked citizens to register their presence and is also advising travelers to contact their airline to check if commercial options are available.
The UK initially committed an immediate financial support package of £2.5 million to the region, with Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper announcing an additional £5 million on Friday.
Cooper said the announcement comes as “more information is now emerging about the extent of the devastation caused by Hurricane Melissa, with damage to homes, road closures and loss of life.”
The British Red Cross said the King and Queen's donation will help the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) “continue its life-saving work”, which includes search and rescue work in Jamaica, as well as access to healthcare, safe shelter and clean water.
The Red Cross said 72% of people in Jamaica are still without electricity and about 6,000 people are in shelters.
Until the Jamaican government can restore service to the broken power grid, any generators that aid agencies can distribute will be vital.
The same thing will happen with tarps, given the scale of the housing crisis.
Meanwhile, with so many people in need of clean drinking water and basic food supplies, patience is running thin and there are increasing reports of desperate people flocking to supermarkets to collect and give away whatever food they can find.
The BBC has seen queues outside petrol stations with people waiting for hours before they reach the front of the queue and are told there is no fuel left.
Some people are looking for fuel for generators, others looking for a car to get to a place where they can reach people, with power cut across much of the island.
Flooding has occurred in some areas of St. Elizabeth in recent days. [AFP via Getty Images]
The country's Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton on Saturday described “significant damage” to a number of hospitals, with Black River Hospital in St Elizabeth being the most seriously damaged.
“This facility will have to be completely relocated at this point in terms of service delivery,” he said.
“The immediate priority for the affected hospitals is to maintain emergency and critical care services,” Dr Tufton added. “We are seeing a lot of people coming into these facilities now with injuries. [injuries] from falling off the roof, to staircases, to nails piercing your feet.”
The minister said arrangements have been made for a constant supply of fuel to the sites as well as a “daily supply of water.”
Although aid is pouring into the country, landslides, downed power lines and fallen trees have left some roads impassable.
However, some of Jamaica's hardest-hit areas should finally receive some help in the coming hours.
At least one humanitarian organization, Global Empowerment Mission, left Kingston this morning with a convoy of seven trucks to Black River, a hard-hit town in western Jamaica, with relief packages assembled by volunteers from the Jamaican diaspora in Florida.
Aid is also arriving by helicopter from other aid groups and foreign governments.
This is just a fraction of what the affected communities need, but officials insist there will be more on the way.
