Jimmy Carter visits Grenada to draw attention to hurricane devastation

<p>Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter arrived in Grenada on Thursday for a visit intended to draw international attention to the needs of a country where life has been paralyzed by Hurricane Ivan's devastation.</p><p>The Nobel Peace Prize laureate made no public comment after arriving for the two-day visit Thursday afternoon. From the airport, he went to the U.S. Embassy in the capital of St. George's before a planned tour of communities damaged when Hurricane Ivan struck Sept. 7.</p><p>Carter, 80, also planned a stop at St. George's University, where hundreds of American medical students studied before the disaster. Most students left after the hurricane, and most classes are being held in the United States until January.</p><p>On Friday, Carter was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, whose own home was flattened.</p><p>The hurricane destroyed or damaged 90 percent of houses and buildings, including many centuries-old British and French colonial buildings. Thirty-nine people were killed, and half the population of 100,000 was left homeless.</p><p>Carter's visit came a day after President George W. Bush signed a disaster bill clearing the way for $100 million in aid to help Grenada, Jamaica, Haiti and other Caribbean countries trying to recover from four hurricanes in a row.</p><p>During a visit to Grenada last week, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Grenada would receive the largest portion of the Caribbean aid.</p><p>U.S. aid to Grenada has dropped sharply since U.S. troops invaded in 1983 following a coup by left-wing radicals. Nineteen Americans died in the invasion, along with some 45 Grenadians and 24 Cubans.</p><p>Some islanders have complained the United States has been slow in sending help after the hurricane.</p><p>The island's government estimated losses due to destruction and lost tourist business at $900 million.</p><p>Nearly a month after Ivan, many Grenadians still are sleeping in their cars or on the floors of damaged houses with their trademark red-zinc roofs blown off. Few neighborhoods have electricity and some still lack running water.</p><p>On Friday, Carter planned to visit the Grand Etang National Park, where Ivan felled many trees in a tropical forest home to parrots, monkeys and other animals.</p><p>He was also scheduled to tour a nutmeg plantation about 15 miles from the capital. Grenada lost about 60 percent of its critical nutmeg crop, and officials say it will take about a decade for the industry to reach pre-Ivan levels, though there is enough nutmeg in stock to satisfy world markets for at least three years.</p><p>More than a third of the island's residents depended on spice farming for work. Grenada is the world's No. 2 nutmeg producer after Indonesia.</p>