Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter
Segree Douglas (right), shelter manager at the St. Philomena Basic School in Portland Cottage, Clarendon, takes information from residents seeking shelter from Hurricane Emily at the school last Saturday. - RICARDO MAKYN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), Dr. Barbara Carby, says her office will be examining a proposal to have a stipend put in place for shelter managers.
Speaking at Monday's weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, Dr. Carby admitted that there were at times problems at some locations where managers did not turn up to supervise shelters.
She argued that if a stipend were put in place it would encourage more persons to become shelter managers.
"That is something we will look at to see if it would be easier to staff the shelters," she said.
Dr. Carby also argued, however, that while there had been problems at some shelters, those problems were not as widescale as may be thought.
She said: "What I find happens, very often, with the media, is the exceptions are reported and focused on. In Ivan, we had over 600
shelters opened and we did not have problems in (even) 10 per cent of those."
INADEQUATE MANAGEMENT
She said that upon investigation it was determined that only five per cent of the shelters had faced specific problems related to inadequate management during Hurricane Ivan.
"We have to be careful about that because it is very discouraging to a shelter manager when you are seeing headlines that shelters are not being managed properly and they know they are doing their best in the circumstance," she said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Carby has also supported the proposal by the Government to implement legislation that would force the removal of persons from areas that are disaster prone.
PUBLIC SAFETY
"I would support any legislation that would enhance public safety ... my reservation would be in the area of enforcement because we are not an easy people to govern," she said.
Commenting on the evacuation of persons in Port Royal and Bull Bay last week when Hurricane Emily threatened the island, Dr. Carby said the residents did not heed the warning to evacuate.
"Our buses sat there quite alone with nobody getting on to them," she said. In Portmore, she said the population again ignored the shelters that were opened in that area.
Dr. Carby said some persons who had a bad experience during Ivan took the precaution this year and voluntarily evacuated their homes. These included the community of Portland Cottage in Clarendon.
