New homes for storm victims ready soon

Persons in the North Leeward area whose homes were destroyed or deemed unfit by the Christmas storm system will soon be able to move into their new homes.{{more}}

According to Minister of Housing Montgomery Daniel, the houses should be ready in about three weeks time.

Daniel was in the North Leeward community of Fitz-Hughes earlier this week inspecting the six houses which will be home to some of the persons made homeless by the trough system, which killed eight, rendered many homeless and caused damage to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The minister said that he is happy with the progress of the work on the houses, as he wants to have the owners out of the shelters and into their new homes as soon as possible.

Six homes were built at Roux Hill, extending the low income home project that was already there and eight homes were built at Cumberland.

At present, most of the homes are about 98 per cent complete, only awaiting water and electricity connections. Daniel said that another four or five homes will be built at Roux Hill, while four more will be built at Cumberland.

A home for Sweet-I Robertson being built at Roux Hill is halfway completed. Robertson is a 21-year-old woman who was paralyzed from her waist down in 2009, when she was caught in the crossfire during a shoot out between rival gangs.

Daniel said that the contractors should be commended for work well done and that he is happy with the overall situation. One contractor, Saville Murray of Fitz-Hughes, said that despite the time constraints, he was confident that he could meet the deadline.

Murray, who learnt most of his craft in Barbados and Trinidad, said that he looks at every job as a challenge and approaches his work from all angles so as to find the best way to go forward.