Taking the oath of office before family, friends and now cabinet colleagues yesterday afternoon was Central Grand Bahama MP Iram Lewis, who was sworn in as minister of state for the new Ministry of Disaster Preparedness, Management and Reconstruction.
Lewis is an engineer by profession and before accepting the new role as minister of state, he served as parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Works.
Following his swearing in, Lewis told reporters that his goal is to get the islands affected by Hurricane Dorian back to some sense of normalcy as soon as possible.
“Get my full portfolio. Get a clear understanding and assemble my team. There will be an office in Grand Bahama and in Nassau and one in Abaco for operational purposes so I can stay on top of what’s going on,” he said.
“We’re going to have a board that’s going to be very active, very focused and we will be reporting on a regular basis to the Bahamian public as to what we are doing.”
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) will fall under this new ministry.
When questioned about the heavy criticism NEMA has faced post Hurricane Dorian, Lewis said there will be naysayers, but those who mean well, must remain positive.
He accepted that ongoing training is key for NEMA.
“We need to have a focus approach, to see how we can work hand in glove to ensure that if we go through another serious super storm like this that we would be more prepared,” Lewis said.
“So preparation is key, preparation and ongoing training because every experience will be different and you could learn something and we can build on whatever we learn.”
Meantime, contracts are being prepared for teams to move into Abaco.
“Let me be clear, we are going to use all of the Bahamian companies. We are going to do an inventory of all the machinery that we have in The Bahamas, owned by Bahamians and use those first,” he said.
“Of course, if the work load becomes excessive and you need to bring in other help then we would, but we’re looking at Bahamian focus first.”
It’s to be a layered cleanup process taking into consideration bodies may be beneath the rubble.
