The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

CHAIRMAN of the Disaster Reconstruction Authority John-Michael Clarke said yesterday that while the COVID-19 threat will cause things to “slow down”, officials will not stop relief and rebuilding efforts on storm impacted islands.

Face-to-face services will be suspended in favour of online mechanisms, which will be utilised by DRA personnel.

“We’re suspending the face-to-face. (But) everything will be done online and remotely so what we’ve done is we equipped our offices and our staff to work remotely so as long as you could get online, everything will continue,” he told The Tribune yesterday.

“We’ve ensured that staff will be able to work remotely so you know, they have the requisite technology, laptops etc. in order to continue the operations. But, the work of reconstruction goes on.”

In response to the pandemic, DRA said it has activated the “Action 1” phase in its crisis plan.

“The activation of ‘Action 1’ ensures that critical disaster reconstruction services continue to be provided while limiting risk to DRA staff and customers,” officials said in a statement.

As a result, DRA said, “All non-critical travel by staff of the Disaster Reconstruction Authority has been discontinued.” Additionally, “all visits by the public to the Small Home Repair Assistance programme offices in Abaco, Grand Bahama and New Providence have been suspended.

“Members of the public can continue to submit quotes to abacofinance@drabahamas.org for Abaco homes and finance@drabahamas.org for Grand Bahama homes. Registration continues for Small Home Repair Assistance via www.drabahamas.org,” the statement noted.

The Small Home Repair programme, among other initiatives, was launched by the DRA in February to assist residents in Abaco and Grand Bahama whose homes were damaged during Hurricane Dorian in early September.

With attention now fixed on the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been concerns by residents on the islands that relief efforts will be pushed aside indefinitely.

However, Mr Clarke said officials are still committed to assisting storm victims on those islands.

“Things will slow down as a matter of course because human health comes first insofar as we’re able to continue work without risking the health of the persons involved in the reconstruction and acting on the advice of the Ministry of Health, we will continue work.”

This work, he said, will include finalising dome applications.

“Our technical officer on the ground will still be speaking with social services to get the domes in Spring City occupied,” he said.

“We have domes outside of Spring City that have already been constructed on other people’s properties and we are going through our assessments to determine where else we could put those.”

“Everything still continues, but we just aren’t doing face to face.”

Asked when persons will be allowed to move into those domes, Mr Clarke replied: “Well, for the ones that are in Spring City…we will be doing a joint assessment with (social services) and the residents of Spring City that are most vulnerable, they will be given access to the domes.”

It is not clear when in-person services will resume on the islands as Mr Clarke said they would have to be guided by health officials.

In the meantime, Mr Clarke said operations to clean up communities on the storm impacted islands will remain ongoing.

“That will continue, and they are encouraged to follow the protocols outlined by the Ministry of Health,” he said on the matter.