After its door to door assessment of eastern New Providence, the team from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) found that the majority of loss as a result of last week’s flood was that of furniture.

First Assistant Secretary for NEMA Crystal Glinton, immediately after the assessment in the St. Anne’s and Yamacraw areas ended told the Bahama Journal that people mostly lost their furniture and cars.

The eastern portion of New Providence recorded the highest level of rain last week with some areas reaching 13 inches.

A team consisting of NEMA employees, Royal Bahamas Defence Force and Social Services workers went around to between 300 to 400 homes.

Mrs. Glinton said that what they found was that residents had already begun cleaning up.
But she added that she wants those people to remember that they must be smart in their clean up and take pictures of whatever damages their property has sustained.

“We’re urging them to please take photographs of their damages, because there would be a watermark,” she said.
“If we did not get to your homes, please take photographs of it and as much as possible, if you have insurance and you lost furniture, cover them up so that the insurance people can be able to verify the loss.”

Today, the team will take to Fox Hill and after that, NEMA Director Stephen Russell will create a report and hand recommendations over to the government.

Mrs. Glinton also urged people that are building new homes in the area to go above the country’s legal building code.
“If they are to construct in flood pruned areas, they need to exceed the minimum of the Ministry of Work’s building code,” she said.

“Instead of going up three or four bricks on their foundation, they need to go higher.”

While she could not give an exact figure on the amount of damage, she expects to have that sometime in the near future.