The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

CENTRAL and South Abaco MP John Pinder wants a formal inquiry into how many people died during Hurricane Dorian and how the aftermath of the monster storm was handled.

He said the likely number of people who died from the storm is “substantially more than the 74-odd that are public”.

“I would say that it is a decision that I leave up to the prime minister, but it would be beneficial for Abaco to know the exact extent of the lives lost and the hurdles that came in terms of getting assistance and help to the northern islands in a timely fashion,” he said yesterday.

As opposition leader, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis pledged to launch a commission of inquiry into the number of people who died due to the storm. Still, whether or how the Davis administration will follow through on this is unclear.

“We have not ruled out the possibility of a commission of inquiry in respect to Dorian, the Dorian episode and trauma because I feel that there are lessons to be learned from the experiences at what to do, what not to do in times of trials and tribulations visited by external shocks like a hurricane of the nature and size of Dorian,” Mr Davis told reporters early last month.

His inquiry call in 2020 came after a public disagreement between then-Free National Movement parliamentarians Marvin Dames and Dr Duane Sands.

Dr Sands argued the Minnis administration squandered its credibility over the issue of Dorian missing because it never explained how hundreds of names of people reported missing were culled from the official list of missing people.

Yesterday, he reiterated his view.

“We are now four years post-Dorian, and I believe that the wounds of Dorian remain unhealed in part because as a nation, we have not conducted the types of exercises necessary to get closure,” he said.

“One of those exercises is ensuring that all of the missing persons are adjudicated to have either died or formally missing so that their families can move on and reaching out to those people who continue to say they have loved ones missing, to deal with their claims in a sensitive, compassionate way.

“We have officials’ numbers. These are based on bodies and remains that have been identified, but even in official government proclamations we continue to say we don’t know how many people are missing and as a country I think we can do better.

“Let us look at an approach to honour the victims of Dorian and codify it a bit more so it doesn’t seem to be as haphazard and as arbitrary as it is and I think we will do an awful lot to soften the continued trauma that families, loved ones of persons missing or dead from Dorian continue to suffer.”