<<< PM Ingraham speaks with a relative of one of the island’s tornado victims.
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Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, along with Cabinet Ministers and Members of Parliament and the Senate, toured areas affected by Monday’s deadly tornado strike that claimed the lives of the three employees of the Freeport Container Port.
The Prime Minister first met with injured Container Port employees undergoing treatment at the Rand Memorial Hospital. Following his visit with the injured survivors, he spent time with relatives of the victims of the tragedy.
From there, the Prime Minister and his delegation toured the Freeport Container Port which sustained multiplied millions of dollars in damage during the tornado.
The group then met with displaced residents of the Hepburn Town settlement, before travelling into Freeport proper where they toured the island’s main touristic centre; the Port Lucaya district.
Highlights from the Tour
- The Government has moved in quickly and has assisted 6 displaced families in the Hepburn Town settlement with temporary accommodations while assessments continue to determine the repair and social assistance needs in that community.
- Officials of Hutchison Whampoa’s Freeport Container Port confirmed that the facility receives daily weather advisories through the Grand Bahama International Airport, and uses those advisories in the daily operations at the airport, Lucayan Harbour and Container Port. Two employees of the privately owned Freeport Weather Service continue to be employed at the airport, and the Government will assume their salaries as of July 1.
- Prime Minister Ingraham advised that an investigation will be launched and the details made public, into why the Nassau Met Office – which has responsibility for monitoring weather over the entire Bahamas – did not issue a severe weather advisory prior to the onset of tornadic activity on Grand Bahama.
