Hurricane Dean may have been the 'ill wind that blows nobody good', but some lessons are being learned. Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller indicated as much Wednesday night in an address to the nation reporting on relief measures the Government has been putting in place to alleviate damage to the agriculture sector and some residential communities.

The Prime Minister cited, in particular, the devastation of Caribbean Terrace in the Corporate Area, Rocky Point and Portland Cottage in Clarendon, and Old Harbour Bay in St. Catherine. Of these, Caribbean Terrace and Portland Cottage have been devastated by hurricane before, an indication that the relief measures that ensued were inadequate. In fact, what is now contemplated is wholesale removal of the residents to less vulnerable locations. Ultimately, it seems the authorities will take account of the environmental factors which have not been taken seriously by victims or the authorities.

In this connection, the matter of evacuation of residents from vulnerable areas when a hurricane is imminent needs to be put on firmer ground. It is not clear to us that the so-called mandatory evacuation orders have legal force, particularly as it relates to young children.

There were reports during the passage of Hurricane Dean that buses provided in areas such as Port Royal remained practically empty, as some residents decided to stay put. The same applied to some offshore fisherfolk who chose to ignore the warning to quit the Pedro Cays, and were lucky to survive, even though they had a late change of heart when it was too dangerous to send a rescue mission.

It seems to us that while adults may opt to take chances to protect their property, their children or young dependants should not be put at risk and must be subject to mandatory action. We expect that such matters need specific legislation as individual rights and freedoms may have to be canvassed at parliamentary level in these matters. In that regard, it is clear then that the suggested relocation of entire communities will be extremely challenging.

People who have established familial and economic roots in certain areas will not be agreeable to going too far away. Additionally, a system will have to be put in place to ensure that there is enforcement of the laws to prevent the vacated areas being reoccupied by a new set of informal settlers.

There are other hurricane precautions that need urgent enactment by the new administration, simply because the current hurricane season has more than two months to run. The post-Dean assessments should look at the extent to which inadequate drain cleaning persists. The levels of flooding did not appear to be as serious as expected, perhaps because the hurricane veered from its direct course and brought more strong winds than torrential rain.

Perhaps the biggest lesson from Hurricane Dean is to avoid general elections during the season, which runs annually from June to November; and especially when a new school term, which may collide with political campaigning, is about to begin. Some schools serve as hurricane shelters and, indeed, to accommodate electoral facilities.

The unseasonal collision of all these activities may well have impacted on the efficiency of how all these separate and important operations have come to join in an unseemly relay.