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22 August, 2007 - Published 22:06 GMT
Hurricane Dean has been downgraded to a Tropical Storm, after causing millions of dollars in damage to infrastructure and agriculture in the Caribbean.
Although the impact was not as strong as was initially feared, information from around the region indicates that 13 deaths have been reported.
There were four in Haiti, three in Jamaica, two each in Dominica and Martinique and one each in St Lucia and the Dominican Republic.
Those countries also suffered extensive infrastructural damage.
In Haiti, 1,500 families were left homeless and 7,000 people remain in shelters.
Up to 60,000 families need help in Jamaica, including roofing cover for their homes.
Disaster management officials in St Lucia say infrastructural damage stands at US$6 million, while in Dominica the figure is said to be close to $18m.
Martinique's regional council reported $337m in damage following Dean's passage.
The region's weak agriculture sector did not escape Dean's fury, as all the countries reported significant damage, particularly the banana industry.
France's Prime Minister Francois Fillon conducted a helicopter tour of the Martinique on Wednesday, and pledged to help the island recover from Dean.
'Not strong enough'
But member countries of the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility will not receive assistance from the facility to repair damage.
The fund was set up in June as a source of ready cash for countries hit by earthquakes and hurricanes.
The Jamaica based company which manages the facility, says the impact of Hurricane Dean was not strong enough to qualify.
Chief Executive Officer of Caribbean Risk Management Ltd. Simon Young told BBC Caribbean the scheme was designed to respond only to "major" events.
He said: "Not wishing in any way to diminish the impact, it wasn't the level of major catastrophe that the CCRIF was designed to respond to.
"We estimate that Hurricane Dean in terms of its damage in Jamaica is a one in ten year event, and the facility is designed to respond to events which have a probability of occurring every twenty years or more."
Landfall
However Coordinator of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency Jeremy Collymore believes the region may wish to revisit the scheme.
"What we're saying is that even though it is not a major disaster in the context of an Ivan (in 2004), there are certainly emerging some significant rehabilitation costs," Mr Collymore said.
Dean made landfall in Mexico for a second time on Wednesday, before weakening.