Tomas cuts short humanitarian mission in Suriname

PARIMARIBO, Suriname, CMC - A United States Navy humanitarian vessel USS Iwo Jima cut short its humanitarian mission in Suriname to render relief to hurricane stricken communities in the Eastern Caribbean, leaving long thousands of "disappointed" Surinamese, a local online news service reported here.



"Thousands of people in Suriname, happy with the opportunity to receive free medical care, are now reportedly disappointed," according to DevSur website. The news service reported long lines of people, "waiting in vain for treatment" at a hospital in Paramaribo where the ship's medical volunteers were conducting their operations.



DevSur quoted the US ambassador John Nay as saying the decision to leave Suriname was not an easy one.

Suriname was the eighth and final country the ship visited on its humanitarian mission “Continuing Promise 2010”. In Haïti, Costa Rica, Colombia, Panama, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Guyana, the volunteers, working alongside local medical experts and NGO’s, helped more than 50,000 people, DevSur said.



Hurricane Tomas tore into St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines over the weekend, leaving 14 dead in St Lucia and wiping out banana and other farming in both countries.



Tomas, which had weakened to a tropical storm but is expected to return to hurricane strength, appeared to veer toward earthquake-ravaged Haiti, where an estimated 1.3 million people in tarps and tents are vulnerable to heavy rains, high winds, flooding and mudslides.

Aid workers fear the worst if Tomas strikes Haiti, where hundreds of thousands of people have only makeshift shelter nearly 10 months after the Jan. 12 earthquake, and a cholera epidemic has killed more than 330 and hospitalized nearly 5,000.