The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE overall cost of lump sum payments to public servants affected by Hurricane Dorian will be about $18m, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Peter Turnquest said yesterday.

He told reporters outside Cabinet: "The final cost is still outstanding, however, as we have to consider relocation allowances and rental accommodations for persons displaced and assigned outside of those districts."

Last week the government announced it will give $1,000 lump sum payments to public servants affected by Hurricane Dorian and a relocation payment of $2,600 to those in need.

The hurricane destruction has prompted government to stress the need for specially designed hurricane shelters capable of housing hundreds, if not thousands of people. Mr Turnquest said this is a long-term focus of the administration and suggested funds for this will not be allocated soon.

"We're going to have to have a short and a long-term strategy with respect to the provision of adequate, safe shelters," he said.

"We've seen that some of the properties that we've used as shelters have themselves become compromised during storms because they're not necessarily built to be used as shelters.

"They're strong buildings in the context of our building codes, but still not proper bunkers that we need to now consider as storms are getting stronger and more frequent. The maintenance on these buildings needs to be ongoing to ensure that they're always ready in the event that there is a storm.

"The design of such a structure in these various communities is the first step which will dictate what the cost is going to be to construct these multi-purpose shelters and how they will be stocked and provisioned in anticipation of storm season.

"This is not going to be a short-term solution or project, this is going to be an issue that is going to take some strategic vision and execution. So the short answer is I don't think it will be an overnight project, but certainly something that we have to look towards as these storms become more frequent and strong, including the increase in the storm surges that we're seeing."

Mr Turnquest also said the budget for the new Ministry of Disaster Preparedness is still being formulated. The ministry, headed by Central Grand Bahama MP Iram Lewis, is operating with money allocated to the Office of the Prime Minister.

"We may not have the full, complete budget before the mid-term and we'll come back to lay out the cost and the plan going forward in terms of how this whole event with reprioritise the government's finances," Mr Turnquest said.

He also revealed that it will cost around $25m to get a new engine required for Bahamas Power and Light's Baillou Hills plant.

"Hopefully that can get here very quickly and we can start to shave off some of the problems," he said.