EU offers EUR 6m to help Caribbean after Sandy

(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission offered six million euros Thursday to help Caribbean countries devastated by Hurricane Sandy which caused massive damage and heavy loss of life.

It said Cuba and Haiti were the worst affected while the Dominican Republic and Jamaica also suffered significantly, with the loss of crops stoking fears over food supplies while houses and infrastructure were destroyed.

The immediate priorities are access to food and to safe water, to avoid waterborne diseases and, in countries affected by cholera, to avoid an upsurge of cases, it said in a statement.

"Hurricane Sandy is yet another example of the increasing intensity of natural disasters to which even the best prepared like the United States are not immune," it said.

Haiti, still struggling to recover from a deadly 2010 earthquake, was also hit earlier this year by drought and a cholera epidemic, it noted.

Sandy crashed through the Caribbean before winding its way up the US east coast earlier this month, leaving a trail of death and heavy damage in its wake.