Bermuda Red Cross is reaching out to aid Hurricane Dean victims by launching an appeal for donations while the Salvation Army has plans to repair buildings in Kingston.

Ann Spencer-Arscott, director of the Red Cross, said the appeal was launched yesterday. She said they sent the information to all the media and advised the banks.

Mrs. Spencer-Arscott explained how appeals normally work.

"Generally with appeals, we tend to keep them open for up to three months. But it depends on the severity of the disaster and numbers of people affected and length of time."

She said the Tsunami appeal was open for a year but the normal time is three to six months.

The director said an appeal is launched when a disaster hits close to home.

"We are so fortunate to have a very generous community who want to help our sister societies and islands", she said.

When asked what she would say to encourage people to donate, Mrs. Spencer-Arscott said: "It's always nice to know that if we were ever hit by a devastating hurricane or other natural diaster, there would be people who could offer assistance to us. Like the saying goes, what goes around comes around."

"The homes and structures in those countries that were affected aren't built like ours. So if we lose part of our roofs, it's one thing. But for some of them, they lose their homes."

She said the sooner people donate, the sooner they can get the money out and the sooner people can be helped.

Major Doug Lewis of the Salvation Army explained his group will be sending a work team between eight and ten to Kingston, Jamaica. The team will be repairing the children's village orphanage and a school for the blind.

Major Lewis said the Salvation Army in Jamaica is presently serving 500 meals a day at the shelter and have also handed out food packages to over 1000 people so far.

They are working with the office of disaster preparedness and emergency management in Jamaica.

He said: "We're committed to sending a team to help look after the facilities in the children's village and school for the blind".

Major Lewis said if people want to help, the best way is to give financial donations so they can purchase goods in Jamaica.

He also said the response has been positive from the public.

"People have already responded even though we haven't started publicly. We certainly want to help out and we're going to do what we can to alleviate whatever the need is."

The team will leave sometime next week. The plan is to stay for two weeks depending on how much they are able to accomplish.

Donations for the Red Cross can be deposited into Bank of Bermuda account number 010-18747-011, Bank of NT Butterfield account number 20-006-060-663859-200 or Capital G Bank account number 35760. Donations can also be mailed to: Bermuda Red Cross Hurricane Dean Appeal Fund Charleswood 9 Berry Hill Road Paget DV 03.

Salvation Army donations can be mailed to: Salvation Army PO Box 2259 Hamilton, HMJX.

Hurricane Dean left Jamaica and headed straight for Mexico hitting from the Yucatán Peninsula to the Veracruz coast.

With top winds of 100 mph, Dean's centre hit the tourism and fishing town of Tecolutla shortly after civil defence workers loaded the last evacuees onto army trucks headed to inland shelters. But there was no escaping the sprawling storm's hurricane-force winds, which lashed at least 60 miles, of the Veracruz coast.