Help for hurricane-hit isle linked to Yorkshire

A West Yorkshire man whose parents live on a small Caribbean island devastated by Hurricane Beryl has set up a charity to help residents rebuild their lives.

Lee Shephard Quashie started life in Huddersfield, but moved to Carriacou to live with his grandparents when he was five years old, returning to the UK when he was 12.

His parents Margaret and Christopher have since moved to the island, which has close links with Huddersfield after a large number of Carriacouans moved there to work in the textile mills in the 1950s and 1960s.

When the category four storm hit on 1 July, islanders were left without electricity or means of communication and many of their homes were destroyed.

Barman Mr Quashie, 47, came up with the idea of setting up the charity when his employer - Maverick's bar in Bingley - arranged a fundraising event at their Huddersfield venue as a way of showing their support.

Manager Vicky Foster said: "We had seen that Hurricane Beryl was hitting Carriacou and we were all messaging Lee and checking he was OK.

"The minute he found out his parents had survived I thought, how can we help?

"I checked with the owners of Maverick's if we could hold a charity night and they said, let’s move it Huddersfield, as it has the biggest population of people from Carriacou in the UK."

Backing this up, Mr Quashie said: "Huddersfield has a massive population from the island of Carriacou, because they moved as a community to work in the mills after a recruitment drive.

"There are three main places you will find Carriacou and Grenada people and that's Huddersfield, Bedford and London."

Hurricane Beryl was a category four storm when it hit the island with sustained winds of 150mph (240km/h), but has since been downgraded to a tropical depression.

It brought thunderstorms which produced heavy rain and strong winds, with many buildings destroyed, but fortunately no fatalities among the population of about 9,000.

Mr Quashie said it was an "idyllic" island, where "everybody helps everybody".

"Just as beautiful as the island is, the people are as well," he said.

"It was gut-wrenching to see the residents of the island suffering as they were.

"Afterwards, there were videos, and the people all had smiles on their faces because they said God spared life, and they were grateful."

His parents live in Mount Royal at the top of the island.

"They have lost electricity, communication, the roof has gone so they are living in the downstairs at the moment," he said.

"Any electrical goods have gone, clothes have been washed away. They are in quite a bad way."

He said he was grateful to Maverick's for arranging the fundraiser - called Beryl's Bounceback, which starts at 14:00 BST on Sunday at the Huddersfield bar.

The team plan to raise £20,000 for Carriacou Unite - which Mr Quashie hopes will continue to raise money for years to come.

"We want to do more, because it is going to take a long time to get back to how they were before," he said.

Ms Foster said: "We have been putting together a list of DJs to play soca, reggae and dance hall, R&B, garage, baseline and Afrobeats.

"We have traditional Caribbean cuisine, auctions and a tombola.

"Mavericks will be donating bar profits and any money raised to Carriacou Unite, who will buy supplies for people to rebuild their homes."

The charity is working with local groups iRoko Community Alliance and Carriacou Hurricane Beryl Relief Fund.

Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter) and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected]