Peace Corps reports All Volunteers in Grenada are Safe



Peace Corps reports All Volunteers in Grenada are Safe

Peace Corps Programs Responding to Hurricane

All Volunteers in Grenada are Safe

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 10, 2004 – 5:30 p.m. (EST) The Peace Corps continues its efforts to ensure the safety of its volunteers serving in Haiti, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and the Eastern Caribbean, which includes the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The storm is not expected to impact all islands in the Eastern Caribbean.

"The Peace Corps is taking every precautionary measure to ensure the safety of the volunteers serving in the areas that have been impacted and are in the potential path of Hurricane Ivan," said Peace Corps Director Gaddi H. Vasquez. "All volunteers serving in the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti and Jamaica have been contacted and are in their designated safe houses."

As of this evening, all 23 volunteers in Grenada have been contacted and are unharmed. The Peace Corps country director traveled by boat today to the northern region of the island to contact the three volunteers located in a safe house in the area. All volunteers in Grenada have food and water and will remain at their safe house locations until further notice.

The emergency operations center at the Peace Corps headquarters in Washington, D.C., is operational. Peace Corps staff in Washington, D.C., are in constant communication with the staff at post (located on the island of St. Lucia), the State Department, and the Embassy.

In preparation for possible crisis situations and natural disasters, each Peace Corps program has an Emergency Action Plan specific to that country and developed in cooperation with the Embassy and Peace Corps Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The plans are tested frequently and information is updated constantly. Volunteers are thoroughly trained in their role and responsibilities in the Emergency Action Plan. Posts are prepared for all emergencies.

When this story was posted in October 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:

Director Gaddi Vasquez: The PCOL Interview PCOL sits down for an extended interview with Peace Corps Director Gaddi Vasquez. Read the entire interview from start to finish and we promise you will learn something about the Peace Corps you didn't know before. Plus the debate continues over Safety and Security.

Schwarzenegger praises PC at Convention Governor Schwarzenegger praised the Peace Corps at the Republican National Convention: "We're the America that sends out Peace Corps volunteers to teach village children." Schwarzenegger has previously acknowledged his debt to his father-in-law, Peace Corps Founding Director Sargent Shriver, for teaching him "the joy of public service" and Arnold is encouraging volunteerism by creating California Service Corps and tapping his wife, Maria Shriver, to lead it. Leave your comments and who can come up with the best Current Events Funny?

Peace Corps: One of the Best Faces of America Teresa Heinz Kerry celebrates the Peace Corps Volunteer as one of the best faces America has ever projected in a speech to the Democratic Convention. The National Review disagreed and said that Heinz's celebration of the PCV was "truly offensive." What's your opinion and can you come up with a Political Funny?

Read the stories and leave your comments.