Labour Ministry Providing Relief Supplies to Shelters in Manchester

Ministry of Labour and Social Security Parish Manager for Manchester, Arthur Boswell Smith, has said that relief supplies are being provided to the 34 shelters, which were opened across the parish to provide residents with a haven from the effects of Hurricane Dean.
“We have visited areas such as the Lloyd French Basic School in Kendal, Christiana High School, Grove Place Community Centre, Greenvale Community Centre, May Day High, Hatfield and Broadleaf along with some other sites, where we delivered food supplies as well as comfort items,” he told JIS News, noting that the southern sections of the parish seemed to have suffered the worst impact of the hurricane.
Mr. Smith informed that he has initiated two meetings with staff each day to keep up-to date on the needs of the centres. “We meet at 8:30 each morning to fine tune our itinerary for the day and then again at 4:00 in the evenings to do an evaluation of the day’s proceedings. We have also established a registration centre at our office here at the Mandeville Plaza, so that persons wishing to make a report about damage to property can come in person and we will capture each reported incident,” he told JIS News.
In the meantime, Parish Disaster Coordinator, Claudia Coley, has said that the rehabilitation and recovery programme is in full swing, even though disruption in telephone service has hampered some efforts.
In the meantime, she has commended the volunteers, who have given freely of their time to man the Emergency Operation Centre.
“For us to have an effective disaster programme, there is the requirement for a fully dedicated cadre of persons willing to go above and beyond the call of duty, as it is not easy to work during the passage of a major hurricane as we all have our own individual duties and responsibilities, which we would want to attend to at that time,” she pointed out.
Acting Secretary Manager at the Manchester Parish Council, Dave Harris, told JIS News that members of staff are “on the ground working in many assigned areas such as clearing roads, conducting rescue and helping to run the EOC. For the future, we intend to initiate some activities, which will further strengthen the base that we now have as a disaster can strike at any time.”
Mr. Harris encouraged residents, who suffered property damage as a result of the hurricane to make a report at the registration centre. “This is the correct and best way because data is important as well as transparency in making sure that those with genuine need do receive the assistance required,” he said.