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Bahamas

Pace Towards Recovery/Reconstruction Quickens

NASSAU, The Bahamas – The Minnis Administration quickened its pace towards the road to recovery and reconstruction from the wrath of Hurricane Irma even further on Thursday, September 14 (2017), completing damage assessments in the last two Bahamian islands negatively impacted.

Simultaneously, agencies such as the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and its partners, along with non-governmental organizations such as the Bahamas Red Cross, have been organizing, delivering and distributing relief supplies into the affected islands.

International partners such as the United States Embassy, Nassau, and the United States Agency for International Development/Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) have donated supplies to the country’s relief efforts. In addition, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) President, Luis Alberto Moreno pledged up to $200,000 in grant funds for emergency relief to assist The Bahamas in the wake of Hurricane Irma.

The Minnis Administration took the first, critical steps on the road to recovery from Hurricane Irma Monday (September 11), when the Prime Minister and a team of senior Administration officials, government advisors/planners, disaster managers and technical, environmental and logistical experts from various government corporations, ministries and agencies visited the three islands in the Southern Bahamas where Irma made her first landfall and were most impacted by the very dangerous Category 4 storm.

The work of Damage Assessment Teams is critical in Disaster Management, as their assessments will be used to help provide Government planners with a road map towards determining the appropriate course of action to be taken on the path to recovery and reconstruction.

Prime Minister Minnis was scheduled to visit the islands on Sunday (September 10, 2017) after the “All Clear’ was given for the Southern Bahamas, but severe headwinds in New Providence forced aviators to push back Dr. Minnis’ visit to Monday.

The first island visited was Acklins and the community of Salina Point, which sustained significant damage. Much of the road leading into Salina Point was uprooted, and the cemetery was impacted as were homes – some of which were destroyed.

The Prime Minister and his team moved on to Crooked Island where the dock at Landrail Point sustained major damage. There was minor damage to other structures.

The team then visited Ragged Island, which bore the brunt of Irma’s wrath, severely destroying or damaging 90 per cent of the homes and buildings there.

Power lines and wires were downed, electricity poles were snapped in half as if they were toothpicks, public buildings – including the government-operated school, clinic and other public facilities were severely damaged or destroyed during Irma’s passage.

Prime Minister Minnis has vowed to rebuild Ragged Island into the “first fully green island in the region, utilizing renewable energy and smart technologies from solar energy to sustainable water purification systems.”

The Prime Minister and his team were back at it on Wednesday (September 13, 2017), visiting the islands of Inagua and Mayaguana to assess the damage there, and again on Thursday morning (September 14, 2017), this time, to assess the islands of Bimini and Grand Bahama.

Thursday’s first stop was Bimini. North Bimini (Alice Town, Bailey Town and Porgy Bay) sustained the brunt of the damage with downed power lines and wires, large casuarina trees that were ripped from their roots and fell across the street, and roof and other damage to homes and businesses. Clean-up crews were hard at work clearing debris.

A portion of Bailey Town, including Porgy Bay, was without electricity when the Damage Assessment Teams visited Thursday, but crews from the Bahamas Power and Light Company were already working to restore electricity to the affected areas.

Bimini’s Heritage Sites, a large part of the island-community’s selling point as the “Gateway to The Bahamas” were saved from any major damage.

An Initial Assessment of the environmental impact of the storm on Bimini’s treasured mangroves, bone fishing flats, and ocean indicates they survived the storm in good shape. A full assessment of the impact of Hurricane Irma on Bimini will be provided.

The final stop for the day was in Freeport, Grand Bahama where some of the homes in the communities of Imperial Park I and II, sustained major and minor structural damage as a result of tornado activity associated with Hurricane Irma.

Twenty-eight families (approximately 100 persons) were identified as victims of the tornadoes in Imperial Park with 27 of those families getting support from family members or choosing to remain in their homes with adequate food and water supplies.

Sea surge associated with powerful Irma resulted in coastal erosion and flooding mainly along the southern coastal communities of Lucaya, Smith’s Point, High Rock, McClean’s Town, William’s Town, Lewis Yard, Hunter’s, Eight Mile Rock and West End, Grand Bahama.

“We are fortunate to have been spared greater harm and damage,” Prime Minister Minnis said. “So let us give thanks to the Lord of Life for our many Blessings. Let this gratitude be expressed in generosity by reaching out to others in need here at home and in our region.”