Director of the National Office of Disaster Services, NODS, Philmore Mullin says if Antigua & Barbuda is impacted by a major storm this year assistance will not be easy to come by.
He told a pre-hurricane season press conference yesterday that “we all know that COVID has put a serious dent in our ability to raise funds and so the levels of assistance that victims of hurricane usually get from the state may not be available on the same scale.”
“The other issue is that of the support partners and those who normally provided assistance to an impacted state, they too have some what of a challenge dealing with the COVID situation in their respective countries, and so even if they are in a position to come to our aid they may not be in a position to do so on the same scale as before,” Mullin added.
Given this new reality, Mullin is appealing to residents to “be more responsible and to do those things that could protect life and limb and property so that we would not fair too badly if we are impacted.”
Meantime, NODS is concerned that much of the local housing stock is not built to withstand strong hurricanes.
Mullin says structures that are not grounded on a properly secured foundation are most at risk. He told the news conference an old law which says that persons who are renting land must not put down permanent structures may have to be revisited.
Mullin says that houses in Barbuda have been built to be more resilient and so are able to resist the impact of severe hurricanes.
He says, though, that this unfortunately is not the case for many properties on mainland Antigua.
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