PM: Minimal storm damage in the Abacos

Wed, Aug 31st 2011, 09:58 AM

Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham and Minister of Public Works and Transport Neko Grant mulled over whether Abaco and Eleuthera residents would get duty free exemptions on supplies to fix their homes and businesses post-Hurricane Irene, as they toured Marsh Harbour Monday night.
The prime minister explained that by the look of things neither would need the assistance.
Ingraham is scheduled to tour several of the hardest hit islands in the southern Bahamas today to assess the damage.
The Nassau Guardian hopped aboard the Aga Khan's helicopter along with Ingraham on Monday to view the damage in his                 constituency of North Abaco.  The helicopter was made famous after Minister of the Environment Earl Deveaux took a controversial ride to Bell Island (owned by the Aga Khan) to view a dredging site.  This time the chopper was donated by the Prince for relief efforts.
The helicopter took Ingraham, Grant, journalists and representatives from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other Ministry of Public Works representatives first to Sandy Point and then on to Moore's Island before landing in Treasure Cay, where Ingraham took a ferry to Green Turtle Cay to assess the damage.
He said while he had been told that Green Turtle Cay was the hardest hit settlement in the Abacos, there was minimal damage to homes and infrastructure.
"No great damage was done in Abaco.  Green Turtle Cay, where we're going, was amongst the hardest hit of the communities."
However, spirits were high on Green Turtle Cay when Ingraham stepped onto the dock.  He explained that there were no complaints from the residents during his short visit, even though the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) was still working on restoring the tiny island's power.
"Notwithstanding the winds which they had, the community is very clean and the people are in good spirits," Ingraham said.  "The power is still off but they expect power to come back on tonight (Monday night)."
Assistant manager of BEC in Abaco George Martin said that within a week all of the island and its cays should be restored to normalcy.
Martin said as of Monday night, at least 80 percent of Abaco had its power restored.
The prime minister drove through parts of Murphy Town, Abaco where the power had not been restored and saw that, apart from the outages, there seemed to be minimal damage. He said he would return to the island on Thursday.
The Progressive Liberal Party criticized the government's preparedness for Hurricane Irene the day before Ingraham visited Abaco.
Member of Parliament for Fox Hill Fred Mitchell said in a press release that a public investigation should be done into the state of preparedness and readiness of The Bahamas to respond to emergencies and weather disasters.
Ingraham told The Guardian on the drive to the Treasure Cay dock that he didn't pay much attention to Mitchell because "I didn't hear very much from him when they had hurricanes in 2004 and 1005."
He said he would stack up the Free National Movement's response to Irene far above the response of the PLP following the hurricanes during their time in office.
"We're not contracting out the response," Ingraham said.
"The prime minister is the minister for disaster and it has not been contracted out to any other ministry or department, and there will be full accountability and accounts that are auditable."

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian

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