The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The COVID-19 pandemic has “created a lot of complications” for Abaco’s post-Dorian rebuilding with another hurricane season just weeks away, Tribune Business was told yesterday.

Lance Pinder, Abaco Big Bird Poultry’s operations manager, told Tribune Business: “Everything has really slowed because COVID-19 has come through now, and I’m driving through town looking at everything. They are getting more debris moved out, but it is still slow.

“A lot of people are still without power or water, living in tents. It’s rough for a lot of people over here now. I wouldn’t say COVID-19 stopped all of the work, but it slowed a lot of it up, for sure, no doubt about it. It created a lot of complications for people here.”

Mr Pinder urged the Central Bank of The Bahamas to relax customer due diligence requirements when it came to opening bank accounts, so that Abaconians are more easily able to purchase building materials and other essential supplies.

“The banking situation here was already difficult,” he said. “You could fly to Nassau every so often and deal with your business, but you can’t do that now. I really wish the Central Bank would relax some of the new account requirements now. We need bank accounts to be able to get funds and buy materials; to wire money to the US to buy stuff. It is difficult, very difficult.”

Nakia Wong, owner/operator of Hope Town Canvas, added: “Since COVID-19 our store has been closed, and many of our sewers have been making masks. We are working with an NGO (non-governmental organisation) called Idea Relief. They are in Abaco providing food to communities, and they have hired some of our sewers to make masks to give out. They are paying our sewers and the masks are being given out to the community.”

Looking ahead to the daunting task of rebuilding Abaco, she said: “There is definitely still a lot of work needed to be done. For us personally we were fairly blessed with the amount of damage to our building. There are people with much more damage than our building sustained during the storm.

“For that, our business is still intact and our retail space is still there, and we were able to still re-open. We still had a lot of tourists and our market is mostly tourists. We sustained little physical damage compared to most structures in Hope Town where we are at, and for us personally that was a huge blessing.”

Ms Wong continued: “Most businesses are closed, and I guess people are working on their personal rebuild. A lot of people are working on their homes. It is not an easy time, as there still is no power here, so that’s huge as people are living off of generators for the most part or = trying to invest in some solar. It’s not easy as people are struggling for a normal life as most are out of work.”

As to Abaco’s readiness for the 2020 hurricane season, she added: “I would say there is concern, but I also feel that our fire and rescue is as prepared as they can be. We have a rotation of police officers that come on the island. We live on a small island and there is usually one police officer. I’m not sure what they would do if a hurricane would come again, but I guess it is up to personal responsibility for the individual. “