The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

DOWNTOWN Nassau Partnership Project Manager Gevon Moss yesterday called for the utilisation of “mobile or trailer classrooms” on Crooked Island to house the island’s elementary and high school students displaced by Hurricane Joaquin.

Mr Moss recently visited Crooked Island – from where his parents hail – and told The Tribune that both the Crooked Island High School and the Ulric H Ferguson (formerly Cabbage Hill) Primary School sustained “heavy damage” as a result of the category four storm, putting an indefinite halt to classes at both schools.

Although some students have been relocated to New Providence to continue their schooling while repairs are being carried out, The Tribune understands that a number of students have not been in school since the hurricane’s passage three weeks ago.

However, Nikki Bethel, chief media specialist at the Ministry of Education, told The Tribune yesterday that a “private benefactor” is repairing both schools and that officials are working “aggressively” to ensure that the students return to school in the “shortest amount of time possible.”

She also urged parents on Crooked Island to - if possible - register their children to attend school in New Providence in the interim.

Mr Moss, a former member of the Crooked Island Connection group, made his statements after recently visiting Crooked Island for the second time since the departure of Hurricane Joaquin.

Although mentioning other problems the island is facing, such as it being “taken over” by mosquitos and sand flies due to stagnant water, Mr Moss said what needs to happen “almost immediately” is the introduction of a temporary facility to house the students displaced by the storm and get classes underway.

“Certainly the school system in Crooked Island needs to get back on its feet,” he said. “I’m understanding that a lot of the students were temporarily moved to Nassau and are being accommodated at different schools, and I could imagine there’s some challenges there.

“But right now the schools are heavily damaged, both the high school and the primary school. So I think the first thing that needs to happen, whether it be a solution of mobile or trailer classrooms, we need to essentially get schools back up and running.”

Residents on the island have not had electricity since the storm ripped through the central and southern Bahamas on October 1 and 2. Most of the island’s homes and buildings were destroyed in the storm, and some residents have said they were lucky to escape chest high storm surges with their lives.

Mr Moss said that Crooked Islanders have started to rebound from the devastating storm with a sense of hope.

“When I arrived there immediately after the storm you could see that the island was in a state of shock,” Mr Moss said. “And I think since then, that state of shock has since dissipated and now there is a sense of hopefulness that the island will begin the process of bouncing back.

“So there are people on the ground actually doing work to their businesses and their houses. Certainly a lot of aid has reached the island and has been distributed throughout the island. That is something that the island is very thankful for. And we’re hopeful that the aid continues because the economic wheels of the island have not taken off as yet simply because a lot of the fishermen, they can’t go out to fish because their boats have been destroyed.

“But a lot of the guys now are doing construction work and they’re trying to assist as best as possible to secure the homes and what’s left behind. So I think the island is certainly making a good turn and we’re hopeful it stays the course to see its full restoration in the next year or so.”

On the issue of the school on the island, Ms Bethel also said a team from the Ministry of Works was deployed this week to assess the damage.

“And so we have teams on the ground and we’re working aggressively to make sure that we’re able to complete the repairs and return the students to school in the shortest amount of time possible.

“We know that we’ve had a few (students) who have registered at schools in New Providence in the interim. And that’s what we’re encouraging, that if for whatever reason students have to be displaced from their islands for them to register in school. And of course we’ve facilitated the smooth transition of that process,” Ms Bethel said.