He added that over the next few days, robust efforts will be made to keep an open line of communication to ensure that relatives of those in hurricane-hit zones are provided with the necessary information regarding their loved ones.

“We will work to render assistance to Guyanese nationals in Caribbean countries and generally to the affected states themselves. We want to be able to have an inventory of students, who are on scholarships in Cuba and in other parts of the Caribbean and to see to it that such information is provided to their families,” the Prime Minister said.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge said that Cuba has better infrastructure than many of the other Caribbean countries and noted that from current reports, the Ministry has no reason to believe that scholarship students are in any danger or have suffered seriously.  Nevertheless, the Ministry will be setting up a web portal to facilitate communication between those affected and their families as well as the authorities in Guyana.

As he told Stabroek News on Sunday, Greenidge said that the lack of communication is one of the major difficulties that the regional response effort faces. While there is a basic framework for communication such as Honorary Consul, Ambassadors and other diplomatic representatives, the storm has ravaged communications infrastructure, especially in places like St. Maarten, St. Barts and Barbuda, Greenidge said.

“If you call the Honorary Counsel in any one of these places few of them could respond because either the electricity or the communications network is down so we are using whatever mechanisms we can…”, he added.