With Hurricane season set to begin on June 1, Minister of State for Grand Bahama in the Office of The Prime Minister, Senator Kwasi Thompson said that it is important to perform an assessment of how many people have not received assistance, or who have applied for assistance and are still awaiting help.

Minister Thompson held an extended meeting with important stakeholders in the recovery efforts and received a briefing and update of such recovery efforts and repairs to date. The meeting was held with representatives from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the three Island Administrators, representatives from Social Services and from the Ministry of Works.

“We want to ensure that all persons who qualify for assistance under the hurricane relief programme do receive the assistance they are entitled to,” said Minister Thompson. “We are approaching another hurricane season and must complete the work of this important program.

“I have instructed Administrators to notify the public in the East, West and the Freeport area to provide this office with information on persons who have not yet been assisted. I therefore urge the public to listen for these important notices and follow the instructions.

“They should be receiving, in very short order, a notification on where they should go, when they should go and what documents they should take with them.” Minister Thompson noted that because of the small window with which to work, the Administrators have been given a very short time line to complete their assessments of those who have not yet been assisted.

He is hoping that within the next two weeks members of the public would be given dates and times of where to go to present themselves with their necessary documents.

Minister Thompson pointed out that during the meeting, one of the issues that continually arose was being prepared for the worst in this upcoming hurricane season.

“I’m happy to say that we have extremely competent public officers,” said Minister Thompson. “Persons from NEMA, Social Services, the Ministry of Works and persons from the Office of The Prime Minister are all well aware of the preparations that needs to take place and the information was reported to me; they are on schedule to ensure that all of the necessary things are in place.” 

DAMAGED HOUSE – Many residents in Grand Bahama still have blue tarps over their roofs as they contend with damage suffered from Hurricane Matthew in October 2016. Minister of State for Grand Bahama in the Office of the Prime Minister, Senator Kwasi Thompson said that the government is conducting an assessment of how many persons have not yet received assistance or have applied and are still awiting help. (BIS Photo/Vandyke Hepburn)

By Andrew Coakley

Bahamas Information Services