SOCIAL Services Minister Frankie Campbell.
By KHRISNA RUSSELL
Tribune Chief Reporter
krussell@tribunemedia.net
OFFICIALS hope to have completely deactivated shelters for victims of deadly storm Dorian before the start of the 2020 hurricane season, according to Social Services Minister Frankie Campbell yesterday.
This includes the Poinciana Inn on Bernard Road – which is currently serving as a transitional home for affected families — and Bahamas Academy Auditorium on Wulff Road. Combined, the remaining two shelters house less than 300 people, the minister told reporters yesterday. The 2020 hurricane season is from June 1 to November 30.
“The Kendal G L Isaacs (Gymnasium) as of the 15 (of this month) has been deactivated,” Mr Campbell said outside Parliament. “We are now in the process of trying to restore it back to its original state so that it can be used for its original intent.
“Some (persons) left and went on their way. Others were taken to the Poinciana. I think we have about 67 persons or 30 families at the Poinciana (and) the remainder are at the Bahamas Academy.
“There are about 100 (or) less than 200 persons at Bahamas Academy.”
Asked whether officials planned to use an exit strategy for victims from the shelters, he said his ministry was relying on several factors.
“We are relying on collaborative efforts from the new Ministry of Disaster Preparedness and the preparations that are being made in Abaco and the fact that persons are getting assistance with having their houses repaired,” he said.
“I know the media likes to hold us hard and fast to dates and that’s probably why we don’t give dates, but we are hoping that within the next three months, we are hoping that before the new hurricane season we would be in a position to say that all shelters including the use of the Poinciana has ceased, so that we can truly prepare and make our final preparations for the new season.”
Mr Campbell said some victims were moved to the inn to give them more privacy.
“We wanted to use Poinciana (because) Poinciana has 50 rooms, all of which aren’t completely operable or inhabitable. We wanted to use that for more families - families who need privacy, husbands, wives, girlfriends, boyfriends — to not have them in the open environment and so therein lies the reason for the segregation. That was the method that we used.”
Last month, the government said it wanted to reduce the number of people at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium and the Bahamas Academy Auditorium and would shelter people at the hotel for up to 90 days, giving first consideration to families because of their privacy needs.
The ministry and its partners originally housed more than 2,000 people in shelters across the country after the deadly September storm.
Comments
Well_mudda_take_sic 4 years, 9 months ago
Social Services Minister Frankie Campbell is a creole speaking Haitian who is most happy to be wrongfully used by Hubert Minnis to give political representation to the ever growing illegal Haitian community in The Bahamas.
Frankie Campbell, Elsworth Johnson, Darren Henfield and Hubert Minnis have all betrayed 'true' Bahamians by their constant pandering to the many thousands of Haitian nationals who illegally entered the Bahamas, including their offspring in our country. Instead of implementing a sustained aggressive effort of rounding up and deporting these Haitian nationals, Campbell, Johnson, Henfield and Minnis are wrongfully working behind the scenes as Haitian sympathizers to give official permanent or temporary residence status to as many of these illegal invaders as possible. None of these invaders are entitled to any kind of residency status in the Bahamas by virtue of having entered our country illegally or having been born to an illegal invader.
Campbell, Johnson, Henfield and Minnis are all quite content to sit on their hands and watch as 'true' Bahamians become second class citizens in their own country as a result the invading force of many thousands of illegal Haitian aliens. This invading force has literally crushed our public education and healthcare systems with many more undsirable consequences for the standard of living and quality of life of 'true' Bahamians. Only a most stupid 'true' Bahamian voter would ever again cast a vote for Campbell, Johnson, Henfield or Minnis. The really odd thing here is that Minnis is too stupid to realize that most Haitians who have been fraudulently registered to vote in the Bahamas have made it known they fully intend to support the PLP in the next general election.
stillwaters 4 years, 9 months ago
Who thought it was a good idea to put Haitian in charge of this??????
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