The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Perry Christie said his administration will relocate the Deadman's Cay airport in Long Island to seek protection from the calamitous effects hurricanes have when they strike the outer islands.

On Friday at his office, he spoke of lessons learned from Hurricane Joaquin which lashed the central and southern islands of the Bahamas. The conference was called so the Royal Bank of Canada could present him and the National Disaster and Reconstruction Committee with $50,000 to help with reconstruction efforts following the category four storm's devastating impact in October.

"We learn form the effects of the hurricane," Mr Christie said. "We know airports in Deadman's Cay and Crooked Island were flooded - and partially in Acklins as well. We learned what steps we ought to take to ensure the same problems don't exist when the next hurricane hits.

"It raises questions like how do we deal with Long Island. We wIll have to look for the right place in Long Island to build the new airport because Deadman's Cay is flooding.

"I met with the Minister of Transport to discuss this. We will employ a company to make a determination as to where a new airport could be built. Over and over when a hurricane hits, the same roads are destroyed and you have to build them over again. The challenge is to move inland and do these things on an incremental basis because hurricanes will continue."

Nathaniel Beneby, managing director of the Royal Bank of Canada in the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands, said 100 per cent of buildings have been reconstructed in Rum Cay, one of the islands affected by Hurricane Joaquin, along with Crooked Island, Acklins, Long Island and San Salvador.

Officials suggested that rebuilding efforts in Crooked Island, the hardest hit, are taking place at a slower pace than elsewhere.

One official said the Ministry of Works is still in the process of getting a consultant engineer to go to the island and make an assessment on damages done before reconstruction commences.

As for the other islands, National Emergency and Management Agency (NEMA) Director, Captain Stephen Russell, said some difficulties have been encountered, particularly with trying to secure the necessary manpower to rebuild the islands. However, progress has been moving steadily.

"We are trying to rectify those challenges (relating to manpower)," he said. "We're trying to get persons from New Providence into the other islands to assist with repair programmes. We awarded a series of contracts to reconstruct homes and government properties, airports and other buildings.

"In some places we chose the same contractors who have two contracts and are struggling with manpower. We're trying to get new people into the areas. We hope to have additional teams in place early next month before the start of the 2016 hurricane season."