Bahamas and IDB sign 200K grant agreement for hurricane relief

Mon, Sep 26th 2011, 09:22 AM

Prime Minster Hubert Ingraham signed a grant agreement with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Friday for $200,000 that will go toward hurricane relief efforts overseen by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
NEMA commander Captain Stephen Russell told The Nassau Guardian yesterday that the agency has so far received $528,000 in cash donations-- not including grants -- some of which has already been disbursed to several islands.
Russell said accounts have been opened with various hardware stores on Abaco, Eleuthera and Grand Bahama where building materials can be acquired.
He explained that NEMA has already spent more than $120,000 on building materials for some of the harder hit islands of Mayaguana, Acklins and Crooked Island.
No materials have been imported from outside the country by NEMA as yet, he said.
"We are tapping into local supplies," Russell said. "They (hardware stores) have not asked the government to waiver the duties [either]."
An IDB press release on the $200,000 emergency financing for Hurricane Irene, explained that the money will assist with the supply of food, clothing, potable water, medicines and materials for temporary shelters.
The islands in need of assistance cited in the release are Eleuthera, Cat Island, Long Island, Rum Cay, Acklins, Crooked Island and Mayaguana.
The grant agreement was signed by Ingraham during a bilateral meeting with the IDB president in Washington, D.C.
Russell explained that NEMA will have to keep an account of the money spent from the IDB grant and also the money from a $200,000 grant from the Caribbean Development Fund as part of the grant agreements.
He said both grants are for the direct benefit of victims of Hurricane Irene.
Bad weather recently hampered rebuilding efforts on several of the affected islands, according to Russell, who explained that teams are focused on repairing the homes of the disabled and elderly first and then will move on to single parent homes.
"It's a tedious process and even though I have building teams they have been impacted by rain," he said. "They are just waiting for the weather to hold up."
Russell said the administrators and the Department of Social Services on the various islands have been assisting individuals in getting building materials and distributing the relief funds.
He revealed that NEMA also chartered two vessels at a cost of $30,000 per vessel to transport supplies to affected islands where police and defence force building teams are standing by to receive them.

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian

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