LITTLE BAY – The 13-person contingent from the Royal Montserrat Defence Force which was deployed in Dominica to aid in the recovery efforts after the passing of Tropical Storm Erica, returned to Montserrat late Tuesday evening.
According to a release from the RMDF, “while in Dominica the contingent lived and worked with their regional counterparts in the Regional Security System (RSS)” at RSS headquarters in Morne Bruce overlooking Roseau in Dominica.
While on Dominica, the contingent carried out duties in two main deployments. One was to the stricken village of Petite Savanne, which has now been abandoned and the other to assist at the police station in Colihaut and in the affected area of Dublanc.
Other regional forces that made up the RSS forces came from Barbados, St, Kitts, Antigua and St Vincent. In addition RMDF members were able to assist officers from the Royal Navy Auxiliary Ship Lyme Bay who were deployed in Dominica in digging out vehicles and houses in affected areas as well as delivering food to villagers in the cut off areas.
“The RMDF contingent received the gratitude of the SSU commander for the Commonwealth of Dominica Police Force ASP Cuffy for the assistance provided during their deployment. The group was met by their Acting Commanding Officer Capt. Peter W A White who visited Dominica aboard the Ferry on behalf of the Substantive Commanding Officer Capt. Alvin Ryan to see how the troops were doing and to see first-hand some of the work they did.
Capt. White said: “The gratitude expressed by the people of Dominica was overwhelming and I can attest to the fact that the team represented themselves, the government and people of Montserrat well. Again on behalf of the Commanding Officer we wish to express sincerest thanks to those employers who released their staff who are members of the RMDF so that they could be part of this deployment.”
The Montserrat ferry left Montserrat at 3:00am Tuesday morning with some relief supplies from various organisations on island as well as the Acting Commanding Officer of the RMDF Capt. Peter W A White on route to Dominica via Antigua and arrived in Roseau Dominica at about 11:30am. At 2:00pm the ferry left Dominica and arrived in Antigua about 7:30pm, offloaded passengers and then arrived in Montserrat just after 10:00 o’clock last evening.
