Four days into the 2020 hurricane season, Local Government Commissioner, Glenroy Toussaint, is highlighting efforts to provide hurricane shelters for close to 4000 people islandwide.
Monday, June 1st marked the start of the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season.
“We have done prior to the season, an assessment island-wide of people who would require to be sheltered for the 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season and importantly, we came up with a figure of close to 4000 islandwide,” Toussaint said during a radio programme earlier this week.
He said the location, structural integrity and accessibility of a facility will determine how safe a shelter is.
Most of the shelters, according to Toussaint, are schools, community centres and dwelling homes.
He said since Hurricane Maria, the number of shelters has decreased significantly.
“We used to have a stock of close to 140 shelters and that has gone down significantly,” he stated. “In fact what we have proposed this year is 114.”
The advent of COVID-19 and the resultant need for physical distancing, has increased the demand for space, Toussaint said.
“So while we would have proposed and have available 114, we may have, in some communities, to expand that as it relates to COVID, based on the figures we have of the number of people who require to be taken to the shelters,”
He added that it may become necessary to move people from one community to the next.
He said the “neighbourhood” approach is being encouraged, “but like anything else, we have to look at other alternatives, because we have to be mindful that we are simultaneously dealing with COVID and the Hurricane season.”
The local government official encouraged people to be mindful of the need for continuous physical distancing which, he said, must be taken into consideration when dealing with Hurricane shelters.
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After Maria, pronouncements were made. “Most resilient in the world” “State of the art hurricane shelters” “blablabla”. Money was flowing! brought in constractors and heavy equipment companies from near and far. CREAD was established. How must big showdown. And yet today, we are further behind than we were before Maria. I cannot blame Corona, I cannot blame Maria (because Maria was an opportunity for us to springboard in our advancement). Everyday i ask myself, really, who are these people who lead the organisations and government of my island? Like who are they really? because if they knew better they would surely do better. too much greed and curruption man. Greedy hyenas indeed. Meanwhile the poor suffers. If you ever get a chance listen to a song by Deep Jahi – Double Standards. For me it explains the situation perfectly.
The reason why there is a reduced number of shelters is that the buildings that were designated as shelters were relatively large compared to a dwelling home. They were never designed or constructed (hardened) as real shelters that provided protection during a hurricane.
If the government wants to designate a place as a shelter, they ought to build it such that it offers real protection – not just a large building that traps people during a hurricane.
Also, people realize they dont want their home to be a shelter anymore. Especially as government say their going to make dominica the most resilient country in the world. Go and build all those shelter money was given for by the international donors. Stop using church and community center as shelter. Those building not suitable to house people. Last time people didnt even want to come out in the Parish Hall for people to have church. I hear one man even take control of the priest vehicle. build shelter to accommodate the numbers you expect, (beds, electrical outlets, toilets/showers, kitchen for food prep, area for injuries and medical emergencies). Have them solar and wind powered. Have a garden in the area so some crops can grow, have necessary equipment like chainsaw, generator,…Invest in your communities. if they knew better they would do better.Not everyone can handle greed well. Especially if you never had.
So comrade, after all this hot air about resilience and preparedness. What about the state-of-the art shelter at..or was that another Lie-u told
A joke that man? After you see how vital that shelters were because of Maria. You telling me after so much money was donated to this government and so much money they wasted on election you mean to say that the number of shelters on the island are decreasing ? You cannot be serious. But no peoples in dca must be loosing there minds keeping this cabal in power. But they will still shout LABOUR KA TWAVAY. And stay and take the beat downs. Then you have Charles Savarin who in 79 descided he didn’t like what the gov were doing and got them kicked out of power. Now he is in a position of ultimate power to disban this load of crap we have as a government and call fresh elections he somewhere getting fat.