Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley has said that she expected the flights to become operational within six to 12 hours on Tuesday, July 2 from the Caribbean island, which is witnessing a lockdown-like situation amid a category 4 hurricane. Mottley revealed that the window to leave the island is a short one as she revealed that there is another hurricane coming on Wednesday and hence the stranded Indian team, the players and their families, BCCI officials and support staff are likely to leave Tuesday, July 2 morning.
Since the arrival of the tropical hurricane Beryl on Sunday, June 30 evening, the situation in the island has gotten worse with strong winds and life-threatening storm lashing the whole country with a population of three lakhs. However, Mottley assured that she has been in touch with every department at the airport to get the Indian team home safely in time.
"I don't want to speak in advance of it, but I've literally been in touch with the airport personnel and they're doing their last checks now and we want to resume to normal operations as a matter of urgency," Mottley was quoted as saying be PTI. "There are a number of people who were due to leave yet last night late or today or tomorrow morning. And we want to make sure that we can facilitate those persons, so I would anticipate that within the next six to 12 hours that the airport will be open."
"(We have) been working to ensure that everyone is safe in Barbados, Barbadians and all of the visitors, of course, who came for Cricket World Cup. We were very blessed that the storm did not come on land.
"The hurricane was 80 miles south of us, which limited, the level of damage on shore. But as you can see, we've had coastal, infrastructure and coastal assets have been badly damaged. It could have been a lot worse, but now is the time to do the recovery and the cleanup," The Prime Minister added.
The Indian contingent along with the families, officials and Indian journalists is set to leave on July 2 and arrive in Delhi on Wednesday, July 3 in Delhi. The team will be felicitated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a yet-to-be-confirmed date. Mottley felt for the Indian contingent but was hopeful that the T20 World Cup triumph and the satisfaction and happiness of it might have compensated amid the gloom.
