As Caribbean dreads Hurricane Melissa’s destruction, it can no longer count on USAID

By Jacqueline Charles and Emily Goodin, Miami Herald (TNS)

When catastrophic Hurricane Dorian became the strongest storm ever to hit The Bahamas six years ago, submerging the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama under floodwaters, the U.S. government was among the most generous of responders.

Washington, through the U.S. Agency for International Development, deployed search-and-rescue teams, airlifted over 50 metric tons of critical relief supplies from a warehouse in Miami and dispatched a disaster team. The $33 million response included seaplanes that the humanitarian agency chartered to ferry responders and visiting lawmakers to the devastation.

That was during the first Trump administration — before USAID was dismantled.

Now, as Hurricane Melissa threatens Cuba, the southern Bahama