Residents left homeless by Hurricane Wilma could number in the thousands, according to the local representative for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
Carnard Bethell, who is also the undersecretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, said Thursday that according to data being collected, homes in the hardest hit areas of the southwestern part of the island were either destroyed or left uninhabitable.
“We can say that houses destroyed [are] in the vicinity of over 800, but the thing is this, the figure of three persons per household, doesn’t seem to be as realistic as we thought,” Mr. Bethell said.
“I think we have to go to four persons per household because the areas that were devastated had these excessive number of children.”
Mr. Bethell said households with four or more persons were concentrated in the Lewis Yard, Hunter’s and Mack Town areas.
He said he has asked the Department of Statistics to give him records from the last census five years ago, which could give him a rough idea of how many persons were living in these homes to indicate how many were devastated by the category three storm.
“I have to depend on the Department of Statistics to give an account because the figure of three persons per household is in the metropolitan area of Freeport, but in the hardest hit areas, I have to raise that figure to four maybe five,” Mr. Bethell said.
Some displaced residents had been staying in shelters since the hurricane, although the shelters are now empty, according to Mr. Bethell.
However, the government has made arrangements for about 260 persons to stay in 75 rooms at the Royal Oasis Resort.
The Grand Bahama Port Authority has also allocated 18 apartment units given rent-free for the next six months to some homeless residents.
Meanwhile, many displaced residents are relying on relief aid being distributed through NEMA at a number of relief centres.
Mr. Bethell said getting aid to these residents is a challenging task because in certain areas there are no houses for officials to drop aid off to.
“We have sent supplies to the help centres as immediate help and then we are going to have to sit down as a team to determine whether we will open up separate distribution centres,” Mr. Bethell said.
“The thing about this devastation is this time people have been completely taken out of their homes. So we can’t carry the [supplies] to where the houses were damaged because the people are not there.
“So we may never get to the kind of system we used last year where we set up 22 distribution centres across Grand Bahama because you need to have the food where the people are, but the people are not there. This is a whole new ball game we’re playing in-people are without homes,” Mr. Bethell said.
In the meantime, Mr. Bethell said the Department of Social Services has given out $40,000 in food coupons so far so persons can buy what they need.
He said he is not sure about the total relief aid received, but is encouraged by the response.
However, Mr. Bethell pointed out that more volunteers are needed to assist with restoration and relief efforts. Authorities are also urging more donors to come forward.
By: Courtnee Romer, The Bahama Journal
