NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper said yesterday he would not publicly criticize a public official after House Speaker Patricia Deveaux lambasted the National Emergency Management Agency and its head Captain Stephen Russell.
Cooper was asked if he found the speaker’s comments to be fair.
“I have a view and every other cabinet minister would have a view on the issue,” he said.
“I’m not going to personalize this. I’m not going to personally attack a public servant in public. However, it is our obligation to ensure that the arms of government work and work efficiently.”
Cooper continued: “Our energy and our effort will be on ensuring that we are ready before the next natural disaster confronts us and we will ensure and provide support to Minister Laroda to ensure that he has all of the resources that he needs so NEMA can spring into action very quickly so that we can have a strategic plan in order to manage search and recovery and disaster response.
“What I will conclude by saying is that the horrific experience in the management of Hurricane Dorian, none of us want to live through that experience again and therefore we must ensure that right now we are putting in place the type of strategies and plans that are required to ensure the smooth management of operations when we do have a natural disaster confronting us.
Last week in the House of Assembly, Deveaux said that NEMA was absent when some Bamboo Town residents were severely affected by the weather system, including two elderly people, who lost their roofs and the inner structure of their homes.
In response, NEMA said in a statement that it was initially told about tornadic activity in just the Cowpen and Baillou Hill Road areas.
It said it did not know of such activity in Bamboo Town.
The agency said it “immediately” mobilized its assets, including a warehouse team, to help Bamboo Town residents once it learned of the system’s impact there.
Deveaux said yesterday that she did not read NEMA’s statement in full, but stands by her criticism of the agency’s performance-based partly on her conversation with Captain Russell on the night of the incident.
