In Grenada, ten homes were destroyed, and 21 small boats were lost.
Hurricane Lenny struck at a particularly unfortunate time for Grenada. With a population of 96,000 people, Grenada’s economy had only recently begun to accelerate from a rate of growth of about three percent per year to six percent in 1999 which makes it possible for the country to significantly reduce unemployment and poverty. During the second half of the 1990s, the Grenadan economy weathered the disease-related loss of its banana market through growth in tourism, spice exports, and light manufacturing. Banana exports declined from $2.1 million in 1994 to zero by 1997. At the same time, nutmeg exports increased in both volumes and unit value terms, with the total value growing from $4.5 million in 1994 to $6.8 million in 1997. During this same period, the total value of the associated Mace exports grew from $700,000 to $1.2 million. Unit values increased even further in 1998 and 1999 as supplies to the world market from Indonesia, Grenada’s principal competitor, were disrupted by the Indonesian economic and political crisis.
The damage to transportation infrastructure along Grenada’s west coast has impaired the movement of agricultural products. Much of these crops are grown in the north of the island and the west coastal road provides the only practical link between the growing areas and the port and airport facilities. In contrast, Grenada’s significant light manufacturing sector, accounting for about 7 percent of GDP, was relatively unaffected. Most manufacturing, which includes production of alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, soft drinks, flour, and paint and varnish, is located away from coastal areas.
The critically important tourism sector was affected in a number of ways. Hurricane Lenny destroyed a number of beachfront restaurants and other facilities, and caused significant beach erosion at a number of tourism destinations. It also accelerated the erosion adjacent to the runway of the international airport, threatening to undermine one end of the runway.
The tourism sector is by far the most important in Grenada. Total income derived from tourism has increased from $81.4 million in 1994 to $96.5 million in 1997. By far the largest part of this income is from stay-over tourist at local hotels. Such visitors accounted for $89.0 million out of the total of $96.5 million on 1997 tourism expenditures. However, cruise ship tourism is significant and has been growing at a faster rate (5.3 percent per year versus 1.7 percent of stay-over visitors).
Further complicating Grenada’s response to Hurricane Lenny is a severe deterioration in the government’s fiscal position despite Grenada’s accelerating growth. The deficit of the Central Government increased from only 0.6 percent of GDP as recently as 1995, to an estimated deficit of 7.7 percent in 1999. This increase largely represents an acceleration of the public sector investment program and could be justified if the projects being financed were well chosen and designed to provide maximum return to the Grenadian economy and ultimately to the population at large. Unfortunately, the indications on this score are not reassuring.
Infrastructure costs alone of Hurricane Lenny, the cost of bringing infrastructure back to its pre-disaster condition, and not counting loss of current production, has been estimated by CDERA at $51.3 million for Antigua and Barbuda, $21.5 million for Dominica, $94.3 million for Grenada, and $6.6 million for St. Lucia. The total hurricane damage to Antigua and Barbuda is equivalent to 7.5 percent of estimated 1999 GDP. For Dominica, the damage was equal to 8.8 percent of GDP, for Grenada, 27.0 percent, and for St. Lucia, 1.1 percent.
Source: https://goo.gl/ag5HXq, https://goo.gl/D9yNb6