A hive of construction can be expected all across the country this week, as the home reconstruction process for persons, whose homes were lost or damaged in last December’s flash floods, begins.{{more}}

Last Friday, the director of the National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO), Howie Prince, revealed that the rebuilding process was about to begin, as they attempt to remove persons from shelters.

Prince said persons will need help with obtaining not only building material, but also labour, as some persons are very poor and cannot afford to rebuild for themselves.

“They cannot rebuild for themselves. They can’t afford the material. They can’t afford the labour, so it’s a double whammy where we’ll have to provide the material and labour cost for quite a number of persons who are rebuilding,” the director said.

“In previous disasters, we have seen that we have given persons materials and they are still not able to use it, so we still have to go back in to help them do the rebuilding or find a business or two who will provide for the labour.”

However, Prince noted that he was happy that the response phase was over and that reconstruction is beginning.

“We are happy that we are moving out of that response phase and into the reconstruction phase. We still have persons in shelters. I’m very happy to announce that the actual reconstruction process is beginning. We will begin first of all, by providing vouchers for those who can afford to do the reconstruction themselves, and where the families are not able to do that, then we have to provide labour contracts to those persons,” he said.

As quoted by Prince, approximately 662 houses were damaged, while 122 were destroyed or deemed uninhabitable. He also noted that there were at least 400 houses that needed minor repairs.

Additionally, the director said that the Government will be providing a maximum of $1,500 to persons for repair of retaining walls that were damaged during the disaster.