Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava urges donations for Hurricane Beryl victims
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is joining with local storm relief organizations to coordinate assistance to hundreds of thousands of people impacted by Hurricane Beryl's destructive path across a long swath of the southeastern Caribbean.
"Miami-Dade stands with our neighbors in the Caribbean as they start the long process to recover after the devastating Hurricane Beryl," said Levine Cava in a statement. "In South Florida, we know firsthand just how a hurricane can devastate a community. We must step up and do anything we can to help."
Representatives from Global Empowerment Mission (GEM) and the Caribbean Consular Corps, along with several top county commissioner, held a news conference Thursday morning to talk about their efforts and how South Florida residents can lend their support. The media event was held at a Global Empowerment Mission's donation warehouse in Doral.
GEM reported it has mobilized and is preparing supplies for storm victims in Barbados, St. Vincent & The Grenadines, St. Lucia, Grenada, and other surrounding islands. At its Doral headquarters, staff and volunteers have been packing supplies and organizing logistics for their relief efforts.
"We have team members deployed to support affected individuals on the ground with critical humanitarian aid, and will be conducting these distributions indefinitely," GEM officials said in a statement released earlier this week. Its website has a "community needs list" outlining the supplies most urgently needed for storm victims.
In partnering with GEM, Miami-Dade County officials have posted a list of supplies and drop-off donation locations on its website. These are the drop-off locations:
Miami-Dade County and GEM have designated the following drop-off locations to collect items.
· Global Empowerment Mission HQ, 1850 NW 84th Ave STE 100, Doral, FL 33126
· North Dade Regional Library, 2455 NW 183rd St, Miami Gardens, FL 33056
· South Dade Regional Library, 10750 SW 211 St, Cutler Bay, FL 33189
· Aventura Library, 2930 NE 199th St, Aventura, FL 33180
· Stephen P. Clark Center, 111 NW 1st St, Miami, FL 33132
The Miami Herald, WLRN's news partner, has produced a list of ways to help — country by country — on its website .
Hurricane Beryl ripped off roofs in Jamaica, jumbled fishing boats in Barbados and damaged or destroyed 95% of homes on a pair of islands in St. Vincent and the Grenadines before rumbling toward the Cayman Islands and taking aim at Mexico's Caribbean coast after leaving at least seven dead in its wake.
What had been the earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, weakened to a Category 3 by early Thursday but remained a major hurricane. Its eye was forecast to pass just south of the Cayman Islands overnight.
