By Dionne Rose, Staff ReporterFIVE HUNDRED officers have been deployed islandwide by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security to do a post-Ivan damage assessment with the aim of assisting persons who were affected
during the hurricane.
The officers are a multi-agency team comprised of the Ministries of Labour and Social Security, Local Government, Community Development and Sports, Housing, Health and Agriculture.
The team will also be assisted by the Salvation Army, the Red Cross of Jamaica, the Adventist Disaster Relief Agency (ADRA), the Jamaica Council of Churches and the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF).
WRAP UP
Alvin McIntosh, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, told The Gleaner in an interview that the team had been dispatched and should wrap up the assessment in two weeks.
"The objective of the survey is to establish the degree of damage sustained and to determine the appropriate level of assistance that should be given to individual families," he said.
The permanent secretary said although the team has been sent islandwide, special attention would be given to those who were worst affected, especially in the parishes of St. Catherine, Clarendon, St. Elizabeth, Westmoreland and St. Thomas.
FOCUS
The assessment, he said, will be focused mostly on damage to houses, personal belongings, livestock and agricultural crops. He pointed out that, "any person who sustained damage and may have been overlooked by the investigating teams are asked to contact the Ministry of Labour and Social Security office in their parishes."
Faith Innerarity, director of Social Security in the Ministry, disclosed that the Ministry is looking into making grants available to persons who have been affected by the hurricane but noted this would only be done after the assessment. The grants, she said, will be given largely for the reconstruction of houses.
The number of persons in shelters across the island has been increasing with some 19,000 in 358 shelters.
