Dominica remembers passage of Hurricane Maria

ROSEAU, Dominica (CMC) — Dominica Tuesday remembered the passage of the catastrophic Category 5 Hurricane Maria nine years ago, with Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit saying that 34 nationals are still reported as being missing in addition to the 31 killed by the storm.

“Nine years ago on the night of September 18, 2017, Dominica went through hell,” Skerrit told a sitting of the Dominica Parliament, adding that the storm which made a direct hit on the Caribbean island with winds in excess of 160 miles per hour “battered us without mercy.

“She did not spare the rich or the poor, the young or the old, the farmer in the hills or the fisherman on the coast. Mr Speaker, this House must never forget what that night did to our citizens,” he said, noting that he has met with families “who never got to bury their loved ones.