Samaritan's Purse Rushing Relief to Grenada

The Samaritan’s Purse DC-8 departed our international headquarters, yesterday morning, July 2, with a 13-member Disaster Assistance Response Team and 24 tons of life-saving relief for hurricane-devastated residents of Grenada in the southern Caribbean’s Windward Islands.

Among the relief items onboard are 600 rolls of heavy duty shelter tarping, thousands of solar lights, collapsible jerry cans, a desalination water unit to provide clean drinking water, and medical supplies for our mobile medical unit.

Many communities will be cut off for some days from access to clean water and other infrastructure. We will begin to distribute emergency shelter material, establish water filtration systems in areas that have been heavily damaged, and provide medical care where needed.

“Hurricane Beryl pummelled the Windward Islands, and left thousands of families in need of emergency relief,” said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse. “We started building out pallets of cargo before the hurricane even made landfall and are now on the way with life-saving aid. Please join me in praying for the families who are in the path of this storm, and for our Samaritan’s Purse staff who will be serving them.”

Hurricane Beryl roared ashore as a Category 4 storm on the island nation of Grenada Monday morning, July 1, packing 150 mph winds and dangerous storm surge. The island communities of Grenada’s Carriacou Island were decimated and left under water. Many homes were destroyed and thousands of people are without electricity. At least two people were killed on Carriacou. The island nation of Barbados was also impacted by the onslaught of devastating winds.

By late Monday, the storm had strengthened to a Category 5, with winds reaching 175 mph as it bears down on the central Caribbean, targeting Jamaica and southern Hispaniola, the island shared by Dominican Republic and Haiti.

As the hurricane continued its deadly and destructive path through the Caribbean, Samaritan’s Purse worked with local church partners to determine in needs as we prepared for deployment to the region.

This is the first Atlantic hurricane of 2024 and the strongest storm in recorded history to pass through the Grenadines, a small island chain including Grenada and St. Lucia in the southern Caribbean’s Windward Islands.