Trudy Simpson, Freelance WriterTHE OFFICE of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) on Monday welcomed suggestions from relief agencies, which urged officials to move away from using schools as shelters and to establish at least one purpose shelter in each parish.
However, the ODPEM's Ronald Jackson warned that while those suggestions are great and some of them have been discussed, the implementation of at least the purpose shelters may be hampered by inadequate resources, including money.
At Monday's Gleaner Editors' Forum, Major Denzil Walcott, community relations secretary with the Salvation Army, deputy director general of the Jamaica Red Cross (JRC), Lois Hue, and Ferris Ziadie, chairman of the JRC's Kingston and St. Andrew branch, urged officials to find alternatives to using schools as shelters, as many are inadequate and it affects regular schooling.
They also encouraged officials to construct or identify at least one purpose shelter in each parish. This means that the building's sole purpose is to be a shelter.
SIMILAR FACILITY
He said there is a similar facility in Portland and that the island came close to building another purpose shelter in co-operation with the US military but the project was interrupted by the War in Iraq. He said officials are still discussing alternatives by considering, for example, how community centres are built and managed and are seeking to 'get on board' with projects aimed at establishing alternate shelters.
In the meantime, Mr. Jackson said there are teams from the parish councils, the Health Ministry and other agencies which inspect shelters to determine their readiness and to take them off the shelter listing if they have severe problems. He said what happens sometimes is that these de-listed shelters are used by dislocated residents, who are forced to flee their homes at the last minute. He added that it is a challenge to supply the thousands of persons who fled to the 1,000 designated shelters that exist, because of inadequate resources and cash. During Hurricane Ivan, more than 15,000 persons were housed at official and unofficial shelters across the island.
