Four months after flood, families still in shelters
Forty persons whose homes were destroyed by flood rains from Tropical Storm Lili last September were yesterday still living in shelters in Bull Bay, St Andrew. However, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) yesterday promised that grants would soon be given to the flood victims to help with their rehabilitation.
But the grants, according to Paul Saunders, the ODPEM’s acting director, would not necessarily be sufficient to replace the lost homes. The Government, he told the Sunday Observer, does not have the resources.
“We are the only country in the Caribbean region that gives a straight cash grant,” Saunders said, adding that the ODPEM’s Welfare Relief Team would be reviewing the policy to determine how the needs of victims could be best addressed.
The welfare team, which assesses families in shelters and makes a recommendation to the Social Welfare section of the labour and social welfare ministry, is comprised of representatives from the labour ministry, Salvation Army, Red Cross, Poor Relief Department and Adventist Disaster Relief Agency.
Saunders said that while the Welfare Plan stipulated the payment of up to $30,000 for total loss, the amount actually given would depend on the funds available.
He said that the Government would have to find an alternative to Food For the Poor housing for victims of floods and other disasters, as that organisation, which had a separate demand for its houses, was being stretched by emergency housing requests.
The welfare team, Saunders said, was also looking at offering help only to persons whose income fell below the income tax threshold. People with income above the income tax threshold may have to be assisted through bank loans, he said.
At a meeting of the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation Parish Disaster and Public Health Committee on January 21, Parish Disaster Co-ordinator Isaac Nugent reported that the Welfare Subcommittee provided eight shelters for approximately 350 persons in the Bull Bay and New Haven areas who were flooded out by Tropical Storm Lili.
Omar Afflick, the ODPEM’s region east co-ordinator, said that the agency was working on getting persons in the shelters into more appropriate facilities.
While that is being done, however, the five families of 17 persons, including 10 children, who have been living in the African Martyrs Uganda Catholic Church at 10 Miles, have basically outstayed their welcome.
“They say they want their church,” a tearful Loretta Edgehill, one of the flood victims, told the Sunday Observer on Friday.
The members of African Martyrs, who in the beginning were sympathetic to the plight of the families, have, since the flood, been worshipping at St Benedicts Catholic Church in Harbour View.
Edgehill, whose shop and house at Tamarind Tree, Nine Miles, were washed away, said the ODPEM met with them two weeks ago and told them that no land had as yet been found to relocate them.
But the flood victims have been actively seeking land on their own.
“We have identified a piece of land at 10 Miles that the owner is willing to sell and on which each of the five families can get a house spot,” Edgehill said.
She said that Afflick had been told of the find and had promised to “check about it”.
Three families comprising three adults and six children are still being sheltered at the Full Truth Church of God Deliverance Centre.
One of them, Adassa Sutherland, whose chicken coops, house and furniture were destroyed in the flood, attended the ODPEM meeting two weeks ago, but was not hopeful of relocation any time soon.
“They said that getting a house is a long-term thing, as they haven’t identified any land yet, so we just have to wait,” Sutherland said.
The Church of God of the First Born Seventh-day Adventist Bull Bay has been home for Ishmael Drysdale and an elderly woman, Mary Smith, since the flood.
Drysdale, who is a member of the church, lived with his mother and two brothers at 25 Clement Road. He said that his mother and brothers were staying with friends.
Two families comprised of two adults and nine children are also being sheltered at Ballground.