"Hurricane season brings a humbling reminder that, despite our technologies, most of nature remains unpredictable."

- Diane Ackerman

In the wake of Hurricane Matthew that struck The Bahamas in the early days of October, many Bahamians are still suffering the effects of this unwelcomed visitor to our shores.

At the time of this writing, Bahamas Power and Light reported that electricity was restored to 96 percent of consumers on New Providence. Many Bahamians have managed without running water to their homes since the hurricane and an unacceptably high number have been deprived of both electricity and water. And that's just New Providence. The reports from North Andros and Grand Bahama, especially the West End community, are more catastrophic regarding the dislocation of households, businesses and entire communities.

Therefore, this week we would like to Consider this... What is the present state of the affairs in the wake of Hurricane Matthew?

In this column last week, we gave the Christie administration high marks for the level of preparedness of the nation in advance of the oncoming hurricane. We also noted the abysmally unacceptable and utterly unimpressive performance of both BPL and Cable Bahamas after Matthew's exit. We expressed kudos to the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) for its performance both during and after the hurricane.

Rapid response to the hurricane
In the wake of the hurricane, most members of the government from both sides of the aisle quickly moved into action, albeit with decidedly different responses. Generally, members of Parliament from both sides of the political divide were responsive to their constituents.

Prime Minister Perry Christie, who has considerable experience in dealing with the aftermath of hurricanes, immediately traveled to adversely affected areas around the archipelago, and quickly appreciated that The Bahamas was in a state of emergency like none that had been recently experienced in our islands.

It became rapidly evident that the real measure of exemplary leadership would be determined by the decisions that were taken to accelerate the recovery efforts in order to minimize the distress experienced by so many of our citizens.

Actions proposed by the government
One of the first suggestions that Christie floated was to underwrite a hurricane bond, secured by the government to fund the recovery effort. This past week, the government went to Parliament to seek permission to borrow $150 million and the mechanism for doing so would be a bond issued by the Central Bank of The Bahamas.

Then, the prime minister suggested while speaking to reporters, that it might be necessary to levy a hurricane tax to fund the recovery.

The third idea floated was a suggestion by Tourism Minister Obie Wilchcombe that we should consider establishing a national lottery to assist in defraying the hurricane relief costs.

There were responses to each of these proposals. First, regarding the issuance of a bond issue, many persons believed that this was the best idea floated to date, because it can be rapidly achieved and easily monitored.

Regarding the hurricane tax - perhaps the government quickly realized that imposing a tax now would be a tough sell. It is virtually impossible and impractical to tax citizens who have themselves just emerged from the traumatic hurricane experience. These same citizens, in many cases, are either impecunious or unable to raise the funds that they require to individually recover from the losses sustained in the hurricane. Hence, that idea was scuttled.

On the suggestion of a national lottery, we agree with the minister that a national lottery should be considered for the long term, but we should proceed cautiously along this path. We should remember that foreign consultants previously advised the government, before the gaming referendum, that the country's population was inadequate to sustain a viable national lottery.

In this regard, it would be instructive to review the experiences of other countries to determine what worked for them and what did not regarding their national lotteries. For example, Jamaica with a population of 2.8 million has not developed a successful national lottery. We should understand why this is the case in a country with a population eight-times that of The Bahamas.

We should also appreciate that our proximity to the United States makes it very difficult to believe that Bahamian participation in a national lottery would be realistically achieved, particularly when the cost of lottery tickets in the United States is likely to render a payout considerably higher than would likely be awarded in a Bahamian lottery.

In addition, we believe that a national lottery, if established, should be owned and managed by a government corporation, not the web shops. It is quite likely that more persons will participate if they do not have to enter web shops to purchase their lottery tickets. Finally, there remains residual discordance by some citizens with the gaming referendum and to further empower the web shops would be ill-received by many citizens.

Conclusion: A more considered approach
What is patently clear is that we must take a more deliberate, considered approach to how we prepare for and respond to national disasters that create such a critical state of emergency. Next week, we will suggest several practical steps that we can take to minimize loss of life, property and national resources.

There are two incontrovertible realities: We live in a hurricane corridor, and we know that the hurricane season lasts six months of the year, from June 1 to November 30. This has always been our reality and is not likely to change anytime soon. Given these realities and the adverse effects of global climate change, the potentially devastating threats to and effects of hurricanes on our archipelago will vastly increase.

Therefore, while we must hone our hurricane preparedness protocols, greater care, consideration and attention must be paid to post-hurricane recovery efforts. In this regard, we need to engage in a sober, brutally honest post mortem of our past hurricane experiences and implement national policies that are not reactionary, knee-jerk responses, but policies that are more considered, informed and empirical in their foundation.

Anything short of such an approach will surely result in digging a deeper hole in our national foundation from which it could take many decades to emerge.

o Philip C. Galanis is the managing partner of HLB Galanis and Co., Chartered Accountants, Forensic & Litigation Support Services. He served 15 years in Parliament. Please send your comments to pgalanis@gmail.com.

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