Country counting losses

Barbados is still counting its losses from the passage of Hurricane Elsa. This from Minister of Home Affairs, Information and Public Affairs Wilfred Abrahams as he updated the nation in the midst of an ongoing meeting of the National Emergency Operation Centre.

Revealing that we had taken a decent hit to the local housing stock, Minister Abrahams explained that officials were still well off from giving an accurate estimate of damage as assessments were still ongoing. “The insurance collective issued a statement today where they had estimated that there was about $5 million in claims or loss in Barbados. I just want to make it very clear because there seems to be some misapprehension by the public that this was only $5 million in damage across Barbados. That was in relation to insured claims – that is their initial assessment. They also said that it may go up, but I want to make it very clear to Barbadians; the bulk of the damage happened to uninsured houses,” he said.

Going on to say that he knew that it was an extremely difficult time for many Barbadians, the minister said that the recovery experienced in the past few days was nothing short of phenomenal and thanked the critical agencies such as the National Petroleum Corporation, the Barbados Light and Power and the drainage division for the work they would have done before and after the hurricane to keep the fallout as low as it has been.

Director of the Department of Emergency Management, Kerry Hinds gave an update of the number of reports of damage and revealed that up to that point, 2 372 issues had been reported with 1 333 of those being attributed to roof damage and 145 homes being completely destroyed. “In terms of incidents per parish, we have 475 damage reports in the Christ Church area. In St. Michael 605, in St. George 269, in St. Philip 273, in St. Thomas 127, in St. James 147, in St. John 119, St. Joseph 58, St. Lucy 68, St. Andrew 105. There are 533 households which have indicated that they need some type of assistance in terms of alternate accommodation and as we continue to take your various reports, we will continue to refine those numbers,” she said.

Going on to explain that the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Authority and the Intimate Hotels of Barbados were also onboard in meeting needs of Barbadians by donating 108 rooms at ten hotels, Minister Abrahams took the opportunity to assure members of the public that the government was leaving no stone unturned in trying to get persons the relief they needed. “We also have had units stood up by the Sons of God Spiritual Baptist Church, 18 units there and also from the Labour College, 13 units. Some of these can accommodate multiple persons, the ones at the Spiritual Baptist are two, three and four bedrooms so they can accommodate families as well. Right now the focus of the government is to try to restore some level of normalcy to the lives of the persons who have actually been affected and to try to get you into some degree of comfort as quickly as we can. This is now about the people of Barbados. We have had disruption, we have dislocation, we have had damage and we will get to rebuilding, we will get to restoration. But for now, the critical focus is on the persons, the individuals, the human beings who have been affected. The people have to be our foremost concern at this point in time,” he said.