Many still roofless as Hurricane approaches
This, as the Virgin Islands' (VI) Department of Disaster Management (DDM), advises that residents prepare for the likely impact of Hurricane Isaac, in the coming days.
It was estimated that over 80 per cent of homes across the Territory were either completely destroyed or badly damaged during damming 2017 hurricanes and despite the fact that the National Democratic Party (NDP) led government committed some $15M from its reserve funds to aid persons in the rehabilitation of their homes, many still have not been helped.
Reserved funds
“We recognize that there is still so many people who have been affect by the hurricane, who have not a cover over their heads and we had to do something about that and so we decided to allocate funds, from the reserved funds, $15M towards that process of helping people to get some form of shelter.”
Monies Available
Noting that it is the Ministry of Health and Social Development, which is responsible for this kind of operation, Premier Smith said, the money has available for some time.
“They have had a programme encouraging people to apply for these monies and its available, either in the form of grants or in the form of loans....I spoke with Minister of Health (Hon. Ronnie W. Skelton) a few days ago, he told me they have a lot of applications and gotten a lot of responses as well and people continue to apply.”
Despite many applying, the Territory’s Finance Boss said, “some of them do not meet the criteria completely and he (Hon Skelton) has also assured me that even though they do not completely meet the criteria, there are some ways of helping them.”
$5M Tranche
“Right now we have given the money in tranches, like for example we have given them the $5M and right about now they are just about ready to receive another tranche another $5M, which is being transferred as we speak, to carry on the programme,” said Premier Smith confidently.
He said that the allocation of the loan/grant serves as, “... a jumpstart to helping the people with getting back into their homes because if you don’t have a home to live, to be with your family, you can’t effectively do productive work for the Territory and we expect that as the campaign continues, more funds will come in to support the programme.”
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11 Responses to “Many still roofless as Hurricane approaches ”
Some are putting out tenant's because the family living in the apartments have more than one vehicles.
God is not sleeping he sits high and look low. Every dog have he day . People in our country is to wicked ma son.
And many persons have all kinds of things lying around their properties - including lumber, not to mention debris and scaffolding on their damaged homes. These could easily become flying missiles in the event of a(nother) hurricane.
What if?