Royal Bahamian Defence Force officers escort Bernice Evans back to her heavily damaged home for the first time since the death of her husband, Holland Evans, during Hurricane Matthew.
Despite the constant efforts of workers to bring the country to a state of normalcy following Hurricane Matthew, Hurricane Relief Coordinator and Golden Gates MP Shane Gibson yesterday admitted that it would be a "long time" before island assessments are completed and even longer before repairs are completed.
"[Assessments] are going to take a while," Gibson told reporters on Tuesday.
When asked if he believed total assesments will be completed soon, he said, "No."
"First of all, we have to find sufficient persons out there to do the assessments on the islands.
"And once that is done we need technical assessments because we will need specifics.
"We need to know how many materials we need and how many laborers we will need.
"So we have to go into each home. When you look at the fact that thousands of homes were damaged, you realize it is impossible to get the work done in a short period of time.
"So it is going to take months to complete the assessments and a long time to complete all the repairs."
Prime Minister Perry Christie said shortly after the hurricane that the damage was estimated at $500 million.
Gibson said though he sees progress with recovery efforts, he is not particularly pleased with its pace.
"I'm not proud of that," he said. "I'll be proud when it's completed. People's lives were disrupted.
"Many persons weren't able to get tarp yet so every time they see clouds build up, some people get anxious or anxiety attacks.
"I'll feel good when the process is completed, but as long as we have people in need of assistance, I can't feel good about that."
Gibson explained why recovery efforts are taking long.
He said while workers have been working non-stop to collect debris out of communities, some residents are making the job difficult.
"The clean up efforts are going relatively good," he said.
"But we are experiencing some challenges. We have individuals who are hell bent on putting the green waste and bulk waste on vacant lots.
"So we have several large areas on New Providence where truckers have created some dump sites out of vacant lots.
"So it is creating a challenge.
"And of course after we have cleaned the streets residents are bringing more waste to the front so we have to now double back.
"So we are trying to see how we can wind down this cleaning process.
"We can't do it all in one day. So we have contractors with heavy equipment working in all the constituencies trying to clear them up.
"I anticipate that it would take another three or four months to clean up everything because we have so much waste all over the island.
"It has already cost us so much money so we are hoping to wrap this up soon."
Officials began distributing coupons for assistance last week and plan to continue to do so.
Gibson said contracts for repairs will be issued later on this week.
He said the process to get the country back on track will be "long and tedious".
"It's not like last time when they were providing assistance only for roof repairs," he said.
"This time they are providing services for any damage done to the house.
"That will take a long time."
Jayme C. Pinder, Guardian Staff Reporter
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