The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Government is pressing forward with upgrades to the Bahamas Building Code after “glaring” non-compliance was found to have worsened Hurricane Dorian’s devastation, it was revealed.

Alfred Sears QC, minister for works and utilities, in his contribution to the supplementary Budget debate said the ministry is “pivoting” and making “institutional changes” for the long-term. A priority, he added, is finalising a new Bahamas Building Code. Acknowledging that much of the work was completed under the former Minnis administration, Mr Sears pledged to bring it to a conclusion.

“We need all hands on deck because the hurricane isn’t PLP, and it isn’t FNM. In other words, we all have a vested interest in building resilience,” he said.

Buildings destroyed by Hurricane Dorian in Abaco and Grand Bahama had “significant exposure” to a lack of building code requirements, a report tabled in parliament revealed. 

Mr Sears tabled a “reconnaissance report”, dated November 2019, from buildings control officer, Craig Delancy, who found that many of the Abaco and Grand Bahama-based properties that were destroyed/severely damaged during Dorian exhibited a “glaring absence” of building code compliance. 

The report said that, as a result of the storm surge, and the fact that many of the affected areas were barely above sea level, “new construction on coastal areas of known flood levels must be first granted a ‘special’ permit and, in some specific cases, areas shall become no build zones” 

The report also recommended that the floor level of all structures should be a “minimum height of two feet above the datum level of a region’s flood plain map established by the relevant authorities”.

And it added: “Areas susceptible to significant levels of flooding - the roofs of residential buildings in particular - should be designed with dormers, or at least one vented gable end, that can be used as an escape hatch with pull down ladders attached to ceiling access. Roof overhangs should be kept to a maximum width of 18 inches unless roof framing is engineered for added uplift.”

The report also called for underground electrical cables given the strength of Dorian’s Category Five winds that destroyed the overhead variety. Underground cables have their drawbacks, however, because they become inaccessible when there is massive flooding. 

Mr Sears said: “We are giving special focus to our hurricane-damaged islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama. On October 21 and 22, I visited Grand Bahama with the technical team of the ministry. You cannot go into these communities and leave without a sense of urgency. Whatever is going on Nassau and other parts of this country, priority has to be given to Grand Bahama.”

The report ultimately detailed that buildings destroyed by Hurricane Dorian had “significant exposure” to the “absence of minimum building code requirements” along with “aged or termite-infested timber.”