On Damage By Tropical Storm Noel
7th November, 2007

Yesterday, I led a delegation of PLPs to Exuma, Cat Island and San Salvador to see for ourselves the damage wrought by Tropical Storm Noel.

The Progressive Liberal Party had received several complaints from residents in these islands.

Their complaints were about the inaction of the government and their failures and the lack of interest from the government since the storm passed.

We needed to see for ourselves.  What we saw amazed us and causes grave concern.

What we found was damage from unprecedented flooding in the islands we visited.

The team was unable to visit Long Island because of the continued level of flooding but we will do so at another time.

In each island, we met with the citizens of affected communities to hear their stories and to feel for ourselves how they had been affected.

Everyone to whom we spoke agreed that never in the history of their lifetimes had anyone seen rain and flooding of the proportions of Tropical Storm Noel.

I will make some brief observations about each Island and then I will open up to questions:

In Exuma, we were able to see that several communities are in fact cut off from the mainstream of the islands economic life by high water.

The Forest is a particular concern, as is the settlement of Moss Town and the settlements of Hartswell and Forbes Hill that we were not able to visit.

There is an urgent need for the government to act to meet the immediate needs of the affected residents.

A principle source of concern in Exuma is that the Four Seasons Hotel is closed and the prime minister during his one hour stop in Exuma did not stop at the facility when he visited the island.

In addition, some residents complained that the prime minister did not even leave the bus when he visited one of the communities.

However, I was able to speak with the General Manager, who anticipated that they would reopen for business at the earliest opportunity.

I thanked him for his continued support of the Exuma economy and gave what encouragement I could to his enterprise.

I should note here that we owe thanks to Four Seasons for supplying four pumps two of which are available for community use.

I think this is an extraordinary gesture and the government would do well to make a similar practical gesture.

The economy of Exuma cannot sustain a long closing of the hotel and there must be immediate government action.

Immediate steps must be taken to help return the situation to normalcy.

Farming areas in Exuma have also been badly affected.

In San Salvador, the main concern apart from flooding in United Estates and other areas is that the Primary School in Cockburn Town needs to reopen.

It does not appear that sufficient work is being done by the central government to address this need.

In Cat Island, we drove through a two mile long stretch of water that covered the road.

One part of Cat Island is cut off from the next.  There is a need to address the pumping of water or some alternative routing so that commerce can again flow along the roads in Cat Island.

The residents in Long Island are still cut off because of the flooding.

All of the islanders shared with us their concern about the slow government responses to their plight, and the fact that the government appears paralysed to act.

I was myself concerned that the government did not see it as a priority to address the House on this matter when it last met on Monday.

The PLP is preparing a comprehensive report of what it saw and will discuss its findings with the public in due course.

In particular, we will discuss the country's lack of preparedness to deal with this latest emergency.

I wish to express my sympathy to all the people affected by the storm and I pledge to the country as I pledged to the island residents whom we saw yesterday that my party will do that it can to cause the government to move the resources of the state to help them.

I think it is particularly important for the government to improve its dissemination of information on the storm and its after effects.  We found complaints about a lack of information coming from the residents who we visited.

Indeed, it appears that the government’s own information and planning about this matter was sadly lacking since it appears that the had to have been aware that the storm was headed our way, but yet they continued with the local government administrators conference during the height of the storm and all administrators were in Nassau when they should have been back at their posts.

Accompanying me on my visit were Vincent Peet, MP for North Andros and the Berry Islands; Fred Mitchell MP Fox Hill, Bradley Roberts former Minister of Works, Dr. Bernard Nottage MP Bain and Grants Town, Shane Gibson, MP for Garden Hills and  Senator Jerome Fitzgerald.

In Exuma, the team was led through the island by its MP Anthony Moss.

I now invite members of the team to comment on aspects of our visit, after which we will take any questions.