Nine months after the passing of Hurricane Matthew, nearly 2,000 homes have still not been repaired, according to National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Director Captain Stephen Russell.
Noting that initially near 5,000 homes were impacted by the Category 4 storm, which affected several islands last October, Russell assured that, although it may seem as if the process is slow, "We are chucking away on a daily basis".
"When I spoke with the technical director from the recovery unit, Melanie Roach, almost 10 days ago, she said there are 1,700 more homes that we need to tackle," Russell said yesterday at NEMA headquarters.
"I think that is from a number probably almost near 5,000 homes in New Providence.
"So they have been tackling the homes on a daily basis, weekly basis and monthly basis.
"We have brought the number down from 5,000 to 1,700, so she can now say we need to address those 1,700 homes over the next two to three months.
"That is in New Providence.
"I know we had some figures like almost 543 homes [were damaged] in Andros.
"I'm quite sure we are down to the 250 mark."
The agency's voucher program is also partly responsible for those 1,700 homes that have yet to be fixed, he said.
"With the repair and reconstruction phase, the team that was developed after Hurricane Matthew in particular, to look after the repair and reconstruction program, they looked at a strategy of providing both labor and materials to some persons and materials only for another group of [people]," he explained.
"What we have discovered is people who qualified for materials only, based on their salary, people who made more than $421 up to $700 per week combined household income, they were entitled to materials only.
"Persons in their household who made less than $421 per week, they got labor and material assistance.
"We have discovered [that] many persons, based on their combined household incomes, qualified for materials only, and we issued vouchers to those persons where they can go to a number of participating hardware stores and redeem their vouchers to get the materials.
"What we are now discovering that persons, although they only qualify for materials, they have difficulty getting repairs."
Russell explained that the rate of labor is double or triple the amount of money spent on materials.
He said some people are having major challenges finding funds for labor.
Additionally, some hardware stores have been backed up.
He said in instances where store owners had to choose between accepting vouchers and accepting cash, they saw cash as a priority. Further, on numerous occasions they ran out of supplies because of the large volume of customers.
Russell said the agency is currently revising its strategy.
Nonetheless, he encouraged citizens to save for rainy days figuratively and literally.
He said citizens cannot expect the government to do all of the work for them.
"We employed a strategy in the Family Islands a number of years ago where we formed small teams of nine persons, where they went into the community doing repairs for senior citizens, disabled persons and single parents," he said.
"So we have to look at those strategies again, or we may have to look at some competent contractors and have them look at a cluster of houses in one area at a time."
He said, "Some people have to do things themselves.
"Everyone cannot sit and expect the government to repair their homes.
"Your home is one of your major investments.
"The government cannot repair all of those homes."
Russell said some $2 million was donated to NEMA after the most recent hurricane. That money has since been spent on repairs and reconstruction.
He could not give a total figure of money spent on reconstruction.

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