Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham's recent comment that no place in The Bahamas was devastated by Hurricane Irene has drawn the ire of the Progressive Liberal Party, whose leader declared yesterday that Ingraham was attempting to downplay the severe impact dealt by the storm.
"The prime minister has to be aware that when he speaks the country and the world must listen because he speaks on behalf of the entire country," said Perry Christie at a press conference at PLP headquarters on Farrington Road.
"So therefore, when he enters into a public debate as to whether or not it was devastation, the particular island or community, then he makes a mistake, I think.
"What happens then is that people who have experienced it, people who have actually seen it then say why is my prime minister not seeing this as it took place?  Why is he minimizing or making light of something that is incredibly serious?"
Regarding exaggerated reports of damage in Lovely Bay, Acklins, the prime minister said on Saturday that it is difficult to control the flow of information during disasters.
"There's no place in The Bahamas that's devastated -- anywhere," Ingraham said emphatically.
"One of the things about disasters is that rumors spread and people pile on, etc.
"And then others accept that because you don't expect people to be making up stories during the course of the disaster.
"There's no fool proof guarantee against [inaccurate information].  The great United States of America, they have a disaster and then you have all sorts of words being spread with all sorts of communication."
Ingraham said he never accepted as fact the report from the island administrator that Lovely Bay was 90 percent destroyed.
But yesterday, MICAL MP V. Alfred Gray also took issue with the prime minister's suggestion that Irene did not create devastation in his constituency.
"When I heard the prime minister [speak] to the fact that there was no devastation in the wake of Hurricane Irene, I was wondering what planet he was on," Gray said.
"If he said that because there was no loss of lives it does not equate to devastation, then he is correct but if 17 flattened homes [in Acklins], 42 severely damaged and something like 87 damaged homes is not utter destruction, I don't know what it is."
Gray said while the government's response to the hurricane was swift, it was inadequate.
Ingraham told The Nassau Guardian yesterday that any fair-minded person would see that the government's response to Hurricane Irene was appropriate and adequate.
At his press conference yesterday, Christie also said the Bahamian islands hardest hit by Hurricane Irene were ill-prepared to deal with a storm of that nature and the government must learn lessons from its "failures" in its wake.
"The purpose of this press conference is to bring to the government the need for faster and more effective responses," Christie said.
Asked by reporters yesterday whether there were any lessons learnt from the hurricane, Ingraham said, "We learn lessons every day.  I learn lessons every day that I'm in government and every day I live.
"There are no particular lessons to be learnt from Irene other than we were unable to get reports from Grand Cay in Abaco and we were unable to get a report from the Lovely Bay, Chesters area except late in the day we got a report by cell from someone who was in a shelter.  But we got no direct report from Lovely Bay."
Ingraham spoke to reporters at Odyssey Aviation before boarding the Aga Khan's helicopter to assess damage in Abaco.
Christie said at his press conference that in times of disaster and in preparing for disasters there must be no political divisions.
"Disaster preparedness is a continuing exercise on the part of the government and there ought to be no separation between the opposition party and the governing party, particularly if there is a change during elections," said Christie at the press conference at PLP headquarters on Farrington Road.
"We must continue to build on what was left in place when it comes to protecting our country against [natural disasters]."
New Providence escaped the full force of Hurricane Irene last week, but Christie predicted that it's only a matter of time before a major hurricane impacts the island.
"So we therefore must ensure from a policy point of view that we put in place all of the policies that would keep our country building on protecting ourselves," he said.
The Opposition raised concerns that during and after the storm there were communications challenges, and lamented the fact that some islands like Acklins are struggling to respond after the hurricane.
"We have to be much more stronger in our preparation for response to disaster,"  Christie said.
"In Acklins, we saw them struggling to lift up a lamp pole using a pulley, a tractor and a ladder because they didn't have a bucket truck.
"Obviously, to get a bucket truck would take a week to get down there.  So, clearly, they were not prepared for the kind of work that you'd have to do in the aftermath of a direct hit."
Christie took a swipe at the Ingraham administration over its decision to cancel the contract for a $3 million school in Acklins when it came to office in 2007.
"They said $3 million for a school would be too much even though it would have been a hurricane shelter for over 100 people who live in Salina Point," the PLP leader said.
He added that his administration delayed plans for the new national stadium by six months to ensure that it was built to a standard where it could be a hurricane shelter.
"The observations we make are observations intended to get the government to understand that we are still in the hurricane season, that other hurricanes may come this way and therefore, having had our failures exposed, let us make the necessary preparations this time to ensure that we have the kind of equipment on the islands that we would need immediately after disaster strikes," Christie said.
MP for Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador Philip Brave Davis suggested that the government allow residents impacted by the storm to bring in appliances duty free.
Davis highlighted the widespread damage the storm caused on Cat Island and said many residents were negatively impacted by Hurricane Irene.
The Opposition announced that it intends to make a donation to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and encouraged the wider Bahamian public to do so as well.
Gray said he intends to make arrangements at various lumber yards in New Providence so that residents could purchase building supplies to assist storm victims in his constituency to rebuild.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian