The Tribune

As Matthew looms large on the anniversary of Joaquin, Malcolm J Strachan looks at what, if anything, was learned from last year’s hurricane in terms of planning and reparations and asks why critical repairs have not been carried out . . .

This week The Bahamas will be hit by Hurricane Matthew, a massive storm spanning some 500 miles in width, packing winds in excess of 110mph.

This current category four storm, when it hits the Bahamas, will be almost on the anniversary of Hurricane Joaquin, which devastated the southern Bahamas in 2015, causing damage in the tens of millions of dollars throughout Acklins, Crooked Island, Rum Cay, San Salvador and Long Island.

When Hurricane Joaquin hit, it was a mammoth storm. As a category four hurricane, Joaquin crept over the southern Bahamas, laying waste to all it touched.

An entire year has passed since that storm, and these southern islands have yet to fully recover. There are settlements throughout these islands that still have tarpaulins for roofing, as critical infrastructure including much-needed seawalls are just being repaired. For our collective sakes, we hope that Matthew moves through the Bahamas lightly and fast, and spares our islands any significant damage.

But how are we here again, an entire year later, and critical repairs have yet to be completed?

The need for us as a people, but more importantly, our Government, to appreciate that their failure to plan, and in this instance our failure to be prepared, has hampered our ability to be ready for storms such as Matthew. We are lucky in the sense that Hurricane Matthew is projected to weaken in strength, but what if it does not?

Can anyone tell the Bahamian people what the stockpiles of medicine, water, lumber and other critical supplies are in the southern Bahamas? Has a centralised hub been created in the south, central, and northern islands, as suggested after Hurricane Joaquin last year?

We take these storms for granted too often. Because we have been lucky that there has been no massive loss of life in recent years, we in the Bahamas see them as a minor inconvenience.

To some, it is even a time to get a much-needed short break from work. For others, it’s an excuse for families to get together and play dominoes as they ride out the winds together. Others are not so lucky. Others are left in the wake of the storm to piece together their lives, as they scramble to find their personal items that have been ripped from their homes by the fury of the winds.

Some farmers are left devastated. Their crops disappear under the rising sea. Some fishermen watch in horror as their boats, once anchored in safe harbour, sit in their front lawn, destroyed after the storm passes. And as we have seen one time too many, the Government only comes in after the storm has passed with platitudes, and as if mimicking the storm and the citizens of this country, leaving families even more broken.

Promises of aid and assistance take forever to come. In fact, in the wake of Hurricane Joaquin, farmers on the affected islands were only given between $500 and $1,000 for the damage to their crops. Fishermen who lost their boats, engines and fish traps received cheques that could not even cover the cost of gas.

Not one thought was given to setting up a fund for those fisherman or farmers affected to access loans to help them rebuild. Not one thought was given to the Government purchasing any critical supplies in bulk and making it available to these families. Thank God private citizens stepped up to make donations from around the country and the United States, otherwise these islands would not be as far along as they are today.

But that says a lot about where we place our priorities in this country.

Just last week, we heard from the chairman of the Junkanoo Carnival Commission that they had once again run at a loss well into the millions of dollars on another failed Junkanoo Carnival event.

No “true” accounting had been provided to the public, only nonsense from Paul Major, who quite frankly should be the last person running any financial enterprise given his abysmal track record. But again, leave it up to this Government to burn the public’s taxes on frivolous nonsense.

But just imagine if those millions that were lost on Junkanoo Carnival were directed instead to hurricane relief. Imagine what these tens of millions of dollars could do for these thousands of Bahamians on these islands. Just imagine it. All the necessary critical repairs would be done. Boats and businesses would be back up and running. Airports and seaports repaired. Roads that had been damaged could be repaired, homes rebuilt and farmers able to start putting down new crops again.

That is what true investment in your people looks like. That is what “believing in Bahamians” looks like. Not copying someone else’s culture, but investing our scarce dollars into helping people who need it the most! Not throwing a three-day party to fool the people that “thousands” of jobs were created over a weekend.

With that being said, we would like to encourage residents throughout the Bahamas to prepare as best they can for Hurricane Matthew.

Do not underestimate this storm. As we have seen in the past, storms are known to weaken and strengthen at a moment’s notice. So it is better to be prepared and ready in the event that it hits and hits hard. We also ask all Bahamians to be at the ready to lend a helping hand in the event that our brothers and sisters in our southern islands require our assistance again as they did last year. Lord knows, they deserve to have a break.

So we pray for the best, but prepare ourselves for the worst.

At the very least, we know we will have another Junkanoo Carnival to look forward to next year. #carnivalovereverything.

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