More Resources For Future Disaster Mitigation

While government agencies responsible for disaster planning have prepared and executed their plans with proficiency over the years, additional resources will now be allocated to reducing the impact of future disasters.

Mr. Orrett Connor, Cabinet Secretary and Project Manager for the Cayman Islands Recovery Operation (CIRO), shared these and other ongoing plans with members and guests at the 24-November monthly Chamber of Commerce (CC) luncheon.

Mr. Connor prefaced his presentation to the CC audience by reaffirming that government valued its partnership with the commercial sector and, with recent events, would be placing an even greater importance to it. He spoke of the cooperative work involving government departments and community-wide groups, from pastors to individual volunteers.

Referring to the decision to engage James Lee Witt & Associates as crisis management and mitigation consultants, Mr. Connor said that CIRO serves four main functions: It allows departments and the private sector to coordinate actions and share information; it provides a single source of comprehensive information; it provides a process for action tracking and clarification of responsibilities; and it is documenting the recovery processes for use in developing future response and recovery plans.

Mr. Connor also outlined CIRO’s four main functional groupings - Operations, Information and Planning, Logistics, and Community Outreach and Media Affairs. These groups, he explained, are supported by a resource committee comprising permanent secretaries; a finance team headed by Financial Secretary the Hon. Ken Jefferson; and a private sector liaison group.

Summarising CIRO’s activities and achievements to date, Mr. Connor noted that in the area of housing, CIRO:

• has assisted in managing the shelter and care of persons still needing help;
• has organized a preliminary survey of housing needs and developed a plan for temporary and longer-term housing, including the acquisition of trailer homes to arrive shortly and to be rented at moderate rates;
• is working with financial institutions to put in place low- and no-interest loans. Programmes are already in place with the CI Civil Service Association, Co-operative Credit Union and the Cayman Islands Development Bank (CIDB), and funds are being disbursed;
• is currently developing application and disbursement procedures for housing grants and loans; it is soliciting contractors to work on repairs for homeowners receiving repair grants, and organizing work crews to assist the rebuilding and restoration of homes in each district;
• is pursuing alternative sourcing of building supplies, including non-US jurisdictions, to bring materials into Cayman faster and more competitively for the Government Housing Grant Scheme being administered by the CIDB;
• is working to bring greater coordination among builders, adjusters and insurance companies, and is addressing processes for speeding up insurance payments to homeowners, businesses and others, and is informing the public of insurance procedures and policies regarding record-keeping, reimbursements, etc.

Other activities under CIRO’s auspices outlined by Mr Connor include:

• the establishment of Disaster Assistance Centres (DACs) in each district;
• the provision of free counselling support;
• ensuring the public is kept abreast of the rcovery process through weekly CIRO press briefings, the facilitation of regular radio discussions and appearances on talk shows, the production and distribution of the weekly newsletter CaymanSpirit, and the production of fact sheets providing necessary information for distribution through the DACs and other outlets.