Some more relief may be on the way for Inagua residents who were victims of Hurricane Ike. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said the government will most likely table an exigency order in the House of Assembly, sometime soon.

"We certainly would cause people to be able to have restored and returned to themselves, things which they had before the hurricane that got destroyed during the hurricane. That would be normal for us to do, once the assessments have been done," Ingraham said Tuesday while surveying the damage Hurricane Ike recently caused on Inagua.


"Of course you know that some people have been charged in the courts about these exigency orders and the bringing in of goods under them. So provided (that) people act honestly and make application for items which they had before the hurricane, yes there will be an exigency order that will cover that in Inagua and elsewhere."

Ingraham said he was not sure what other communities would benefit from the upcoming exigency order.

The order would allow Inagua residents to import items lost during the hurricane duty and stamp tax free.

But the prime minister pointed out that residents on that island are already in a position to get a head start on the rebuilding effort.

"As you know we have already declared most of this part of The Bahamas duty free," he said. "There is no duty on building material or stamp tax on [building] materials in the southeast Bahamas. So it will be a question of their furniture, their vehicles, appliances and things of that nature."

The Bahamas is also a contributor to the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility [CCRIF], otherwise known as the catastrophic relief fund, which was launched in 2007.

The Bahamas earmarked $1.2 million to contribute to the fund in its 2007-08 Budget, which is designed to help countries recover from natural disasters.

Hurricane Ike is the first storm of its magnitude to hit the country since it signed on to the fund. Ingraham said that the damage that occurred on Inagua probably would not meet the requirements to access the relief fund.

"I would doubt that very seriously. I think the threshold is $20 million and I don't think so. But that's a determination to be made based on the actual determination of the assessment, but casually no," Ingraham said.

By JUAN MCCARTNEY