Work still to be done on hundreds of homes damaged by Hurricane Elsa

Hundreds of Barbadians whose houses were damaged by Hurricane Elsa almost a year and a half ago will have to spend yet another Christmas away from their homes.

Minister of Housing, Lands and Maintenance Dwight Sutherland said on Wednesday that while more than half of the 1 796 damaged houses have either been repaired or rebuilt, the others are still waiting for work to be completed.

“While we are sorry, we have done an excellent job. We have reached over 50 per cent and the fact that we can access monies from the Catastrophe Fund means that we can finish these houses before the end of the financial year,” he said as he updated the media on the Hurricane Elsa rebuild project, following a tour of the Ridge Meadows housing development, at Ridge Meadows, Christ Church.

“So, we will be over Hurricane Elsa shortly. We have utilised local builders, primarily, in that relief effort and most of them have worked exceptionally well. Some have not, and the reality is that you can’t get 100 per cent, but we are working with them to build them up,” Sutherland added.

In addition to providing more than 400 small contractors to work on the project, Government also supplied materials to 213 homeowners to do their own repairs.

It had allotted $14.9 million to complete the work.

Due to the extent of the damage caused by the hurricane which impacted the island on July 2, 2021, many houses had to be rebuilt. Several homeowners also faced challenges with some contractors along the way.

Sutherland suggested that a private-public sector partnership is needed to create an institution at which young people could learn about home building and ownership from established developers.

“And that is how we will get better at what we do. And that is how we can bring along those 30 per cent of builders that we saw had challenges with Hurricane Elsa. Yes, we had challenges and I want to say to those persons who suffered as a result of poor workmanship, we have corrected that, we have absorbed the cost, and we have given them good builders within that category of over 400 local contractors that worked with us to give persons relief as a result of damage they sustained from the freak storm and Hurricane Elsa,” the Housing Minister said.

anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb