Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
A damaged neighbourhood is seen in Gulf Shores, Alabama, yesterday. Hurricane Katrina battered the United States Gulf Coast on Monday, flooding Mississippi and Louisiana communities, racking up an estimated US$26 billion in damage. - REUTERS
WHILE UNABLE to confirm the deaths of any Jamaicans, Government yesterday disclosed that about 350 overseas hotel workers in Mississippi, United States, were relocated to shelters as a result of Hurricane Katrina.
A day after the Category Four hurricane with winds of 145 mph hit several United States Gulf Coast states, the governor of Mississippi says the death toll in one county alone could be as high as 80. Paramedics on rescue missions have been counting dead bodies, according to the Associated Press.
"Camille was 200 (deaths), and we're looking at a lot more than that," Biloxi city spokesman Vincent Creel told MSNBC yesterday, referring to the hurricane that hit the area in 1969 and destroyed swaths of Mississippi and Louisiana.
"As a result of Hurricane Katrina, a number of properties in Mississippi where our Jamaican workers are employed have been affected," Alvin McIntosh, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, informed The Gleaner yesterday.
He said that none of the workers were injured, but the three properties - the Grand Casino, Beau Rivage Hotel and Casino Magic - were affected.
"These are three properties in the Biloxi area, which have been badly affected by the hurricane," Mr. McIntosh added. "Operations at the hotels have ceased because I gather that the water had reached up to 20 feet, flooding out up to three floors of these hotels."
The Permanent Secretary said the Labour Ministry, which runs the Overseas Employment Programme, has not yet made any decision on whether the workers would be brought back home.
"Two options are readily available to us. One is to transfer some of the workers to other properties where possible and, two, we will return them home if there is no possibility of these hotels resuming operations in the short run," he said.
Last year, in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley which affected Florida, 180 Jamaican hotel workers were sent home after the hotels employing them were damaged.
