Bishop Harvey: Hurricane trauma every year a challenge

Bishop of Grenada the Right Rev Clyde Harvey says it is a challenge for Caribbean bishops to prepare people for the annual trauma of hurricanes.

He was speaking with Newsday via phone from Grenada.

“All bishops have to look at how we deal with the phenomenon of hurricanes getting stronger and stronger and the challenges to our people, how to prepare people for the experience of trauma every year. Everybody had not thought of that. How do you build churches as centres of refuge when a hurricane comes and flattens everything around you?”

This year Hurricane Irma ravaged St Martin and killed Trinidadian Melan Salvary-Doyle and her grandson Oliver Gedio. Irma also annihilated Barbuda and the island had to be abandoned. Hurricane Maria killed 27 in Dominica and left many homeless, including the prime minister. Back in 2004, Grenada suffered catastrophic physical and economic damage from Hurricane Ivan. Harvey, 69, former parish priest of the Laventille/Morvant area, was ordained fifth Bishop of the Diocese of St George’s in Grenada in July. He told Newsday he was happy to be Grenada’s bishop and has experienced moments of sheer joy as well as challenges including traversing the hills of Grenada. He described Grenada as a poverty-stricken diocese with one or two pockets of wealth.

“The church itself, contrary to what people think, is not rich. It is heavily subsidised.”

He said to get the church off the ground will take lot of input and a lot of work to recover what had been lost while proclaiming Christ in the midst of the situation.

In late November Harvey collapsed during a special mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in St George’s. He was taken to St George’s General Hospital, where he was diagnosed with dehydration and low blood pressure. He was kept for observation for 36 hours and discharged.