Hurricane Beryl: Bedford builder's appeal to help Caribbean hurricane victims after his elderly parents' home was wrecked

With all phone and power lines down, desperately-worried David Lambert didn’t know whether his 83-year-old dad Chris and mum Angela, 78, had survived the storm that devastated Carriacou.

But a cousin finally managed to reach the island after a two-hour boat ride from neighbouring Grenada on Wednesday and confirmed that the couple were safe.

Their home, however, had been badly damaged by the 160mph winds and torrential rain and nobody on the 13 square mile island has either electricity or fresh water supplies.

David said: “It was a very worrying 48 hours until we knew my parents were safe. But 95 per cent of the island has been destroyed and their home, like most others, has been badly damaged.

“They are being forced to live downstairs because water pours through the wrecked roof every time it rains.”

Now he is spearheading a fund-raising campaign with Bedford’s All Saint’s Church to get urgently-needed supplies to the island, which is just seven miles long and two miles across at its widest point.

“Financial donations are already rolling in,” said David, “but people have lost everything so as well as money, we also urgently need clothes, underwear and footwear, non-prescription medicines, sanitary products, basic building materials, rope, tarpaulin and all that sort of stuff.

“We’re hoping to fill a container and ship it out next week, but that could take at least a fortnight to reach Grenada. Then we have to make sure that it all gets taken on to Carriacou which might be difficult, because the island’s jetties are all trashed.”

People can donate here: https://givealittle.co/c/RP1pRoCOwboFNHLbTcWKd