The Tribune

By LARRY SMITH

THE response of the government and its emergency management agency to the recent smashing of the southern islands by Hurricane Joaquin has been astonishingly lacking in at least one important respect – the provision of public information.

From the outset, there were complaints that not enough warning of the storm’s approach was given. In fact, this hurricane took most of us by surprise. As comedian Sawyer Boy’s pink-robed ‘Wackeeeem’ character noted: “I came from the behind”.

Early last week Hurricane Joaquin (or ‘Walkine’ as an official memo from the Ministry of Youth put it) was not on anyone’s radar. Then suddenly it was a monstrous thing right on our doorstep. This was followed by two days of intense battering as the now Category 4 storm stalled over the southern islands.

The inevitable result was widespread flooding, major damage to infrastructure, the shredding of poorly-built homes, the wrecking of boats and the loss of all utilities. As late as Monday there was still uncertainty in some quarters over whether any deaths had occurred as a result of the storm.

Prime Minister Perry Christie and NEMA officials held a jaunty press briefing in Nassau on Thursday afternoon, as the storm was already battering the southern islands. This was when Christie used one of his favourite catch-phrases, describing the apparent lack of preparations on affected islands as “a teachable moment.”

By Friday, the southern islands were totally blacked out as everyone waited for the huge storm to begin its slow swing to the north. For many, the memories of Hurricane Andrew’s destructive path over the central and northern Bahamas 23 years ago informed their thinking of what residents in the southern islands were now facing.

As the storm moved out of the Bahamas, first responders in Nassau immediately swung into action. From early Saturday morning individuals, companies, charities and service clubs had mobilised to conduct aerial assessments of the southern islands and set up collection points and protocols for donations of emergency supplies that are being delivered every day to those in need.

This huge spontaneous effort was supported entirely by online social media, and the lack of any official information was very noticeable. A hopeful search for NEMA on Facebook turned up an inactive site – the last posting was a thunderstorm warning on September 24, 2014. At one time there apparently had been another page - titled NEMA Bahamas - but it no longer exists.

The first aerial response team to head for the devastated southern islands was organised by Trans Island Airways, a small charter service based at Odyssey airport owned by the Aranha family. Aircraft began taking off at 7am on Saturday, and the team had a full assessment of all the southern airports before NEMA officials boarded their first flight at about 1pm.

“It wasn’t really a single operation, there were multiple groups working together,” College of the Bahamas history lecturer Stephen Aranha - who was helping with logistics at Odyssey - told me. “They included the Long Islanders Association, Rotaract and a team led by Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner.

“Trans Island Airways got the ball rolling and after Saturday we were dispatching about 20 flights a day, with the smallest aircraft carrying 600lbs per trip, and the largest 7,000lbs. A lot of other Bahamian operators pitched in, as well as a number of private pilots from both here and the US.”

A transport hub was set up in Exuma to offload supplies from larger aircraft, such as the DC-3 provided by Florida Air Cargo. A basic clinic was set up at the George Town airport staffed by doctors like Harold Munnings and Deval Smith-Rolle, who decided whether patients flown in from the southern islands were sick enough to go on to Nassau.

More than a dozen private aircraft (including helicopters) were involved in these relief flights, and many other groups and individuals were offering similar help, from both within the Bahamas and from the United States. Spanish Wells began loading fishing vessels with supplies to take to the islands most in need, and Abaco communities like Hope Town were also raising funds and dispatching planes filled with supplies.

The Odyssey airlift - and even some official flights - were met at first with inexplicable bureaucratic rigidity at the airport. Controllers denied seaplanes take-off clearance because airports were closed, and planes were denied permission to fly aerial surveys over the southern Bahamas for the same reason. Even a Defence Force flight was pointlessly delayed because no destination had been declared.

“That particular conversation went like this,” I was told. “Pilot: Ma’am, this is a military operation. Tower: We make no exceptions for military operations ... In the end we declared most of the early flights as sightseeing trips.”

But despite this huge operation taking place on the ground and on Facebook, absolutely nothing was mentioned on the ZNS newscast on Saturday night (although it was featured on NB12 a few minutes later).

Bahamians desperate for news had to glean what little they could from scattered photos posted online by returning pilots. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and other big wigs boarded a Bahamasair flight late mid-afternoon on Saturday to conduct their own aerial assessment - but only after Christie had attended two funerals.

This VIP tour returned to Nassau around 7pm and we were told to expect an imminent press conference. Eventually, ZNS ran a text crawl advising viewers that the briefing had been postponed. In fact, it had taken place in Exuma earlier. ZNS finally broadcast it at 11.30pm, when Christie’s remarks about speculation over fatalities had already been overtaken by tweeted pronouncements by the Commissioner of Police.

As late as Monday night ZNS was still running NEMA public service announcements identifying hurricane shelters around the islands. And a press conference scheduled by NEMA for 10am yesterday was cancelled.

As one senior newspaper figure told me on Monday: “Last thing we saw from NEMA came via BIS on Friday, advising us about an assessment of the affected islands. I think they’ve been locked in meetings with Christie ever since.”

And the Guardian reported on Monday that the hurricane had “exposed critical weaknesses in our country’s emergency management system and highlighted a level of incompetence that should worry us all.”

So here’s the thing - despite the millions of taxpayer dollars we spend on NEMA and Bahamas Information Services (BIS) - not to mention the Office of the Prime Minister - those at the top feel little obligation to report to the people who pay those taxes about one of the biggest natural disasters to affect the country in recent times.

On the government’s website, NEMA says it is responsible for mitigation planning, community preparedness, recovery coordination and public information on behalf of the government and the general public. It is inconceivable that senior officials have yet to brief Bahamians on damage assessments and recovery efforts four days after the storm.

In my view, it is a matter of information authoritarianism. The civil service and ZNS take their cues from the political directorate, and this particular government has no interest in providing information to the people except on their own terms and in their own time.

At some point there needs to be a public discussion about rebuilding in the same places over and over again. We simply can’t afford to cater to tiny and isolated settlements on remote islands. And maybe we should consider underground utilities on major roadways, or better enforcement of our hurricane-proof building code.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in donations and aid will be floating around the country in the weeks and months ahead. Let’s hope we don’t wind up in a situation like 2004 - when NEMA couldn’t account for $20m raised after Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne.

• What do you think? Send comments to lsmith@tribunemedia.net or visit www.bahamapundit.com