St. Thomas shelter managers complain about poor treatment, limited resources

   

A concern has been raised about the management of shelters in St. Thomas that were open during the passage of Hurricane Beryl.

 

During the recent monthly meeting of the St. Thomas Municipal Corporation, head of the Parish Development Committee, Pansy Murphy, demanded answers for several shortcomings in the operation of the shelters.

 

Ms. Murphy, who indicated that she was speaking on behalf of all shelter managers in the parish, said their treatment was poor as no cots were available for sleeping.

 

"I leave from my good home, get out of my good bed, and I go into the shelter. And you have tough benches. I can pad myself out you know, but what about my other colleagues who work in the shelters? If it's even two cots, you can give to subsidised for persons to sleep on," she complained. 

 

Ms. Murphy added that shelters, like Port Morant Primary School, had leaking roofs and basic resources were not readily available.

 

"So what are the criteria that persons use to inspect the shelters?" she questioned, noting that identified leaks at the school in 2012, and those same areas as well as others leaked during the passage of Hurricane Beryl. 

 

"Next thing, what are we supposed to work with? What are the resources? Port Morant, unuh cyah stop with wi because wi have fiwi supm dem. We have everything - water boot, we have wheelchair, we have everything for ourselves. So what about my other colleagues? They had nothing. Who is responsible for us? We have a kitchen and we can't even get up and put on a pot," she bemoaned. 

 

Ms. Murphy has recommended that training of shelter managers should begin ahead of the start of the hurricane season and all should undergo first aid training free of charge.

 

She cautioned that not many people are willing to volunteer as shelter managers, and if the poor treatment is not addressed, it could result in a shortage during a disaster.

 

Disaster Coordinator for St. Thomas, Martina Medley, has conceded that shelter managers had limited resources to work with during the storm. 

 

"We need resources. I was doing some distribution, however, I wasn't able to get to all of the shelters on time based on the time frame, but we still need more resources for them. So the little that I have, I distributed, but I'm still going to need more resources. So I do the best with what I have, I try to ensure that they get trainings," she insisted.