PM promises help to storm-torn Tobago

Trinidad (CMC):  Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is promising that her five-month-old administration will do all it can to assist Tobago following massive flooding and landslides in the aftermath of Hurricane Tomas.

Persad-Bissessar, who paid a visit to Tobago on Sunday, said she was pleased there had been no loss of life as a result of the destruction caused by the storm.

"So we are alive, there has been, as far as I know there has been up to now no loss of life ... there is property damage, we can fix property damage ... it's impossible to deal with loss [of] life," she told reporters at a news conference at Crown Point Airport in Tobago.

Response time

A release from the Prime Minister's office claimed "because of the mobilisation of key personnel by the prime minister on Friday in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Tomas, the response time to affected areas and citizens was swift and the measures were effective."

Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly, Orville London, said the effects of the storm were 'widespread' and that apart from a number of landslides, several houses had been damaged or destroyed.