Hundreds of students in the Bahamas displaced by Hurricane Wilma

Attorney General and
Minister of Education,
Alfred Sears

by Norman 'Gus' Thomas 
Caribbean Net News Senior Correspondent 
E-mail: rc@caribbeannetnews.com 

Tuesday,  November 1, 2005

NASSAU, Bahamas: The passage of Hurricane Wilma, the third major storm to hit the country in over a year, has left over 500 students of the Grand Bahama primary school totally displaced.

Speaking with the press, Education Director Iris Pinder, disclosed that students attending the Martin Town and West End primary schools have to be temporarily relocated until the school buildings have been repaired. 

According to Education Minister, Alfred Sears, both school buildings suffered damage from hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004 and again they suffered more damage from Hurricane Wilma. 

It was also pointed out that, repair work is ongoing, and students of the West End Primary, which came close to being totally demolished by Frances and Jeanne were relocated to buildings in Freeport.

A ministry source told Caribbean Net News that a preliminary assessment determined that the two school buildings are unusable and may require reconstruction. 

Ministry officials are now considering the possibility of rebuilding the two schools.

Meanwhile, the schools at Eight Mile Rock, Lewis Yard and Holmes’ Rock suffered minor damage and repairs will be carried out shortly.

Minister Sears added that: "Fortunately, the students are on mid-term break right now. We will commence work on those sights where work requires minor repairs as soon as possible, so that we can have school up and running at the earliest time." 

When Wilma reached Grand Bahama it was a Category 2 storm, and in other areas a Category 3, that caught residents by surprise as they not expecting on another big storm to affect the area so fast behind last year's two. 

Government sources told Caribbean Net News that some 100 homes were destroyed leaving hundreds homeless. 

Homes were flooded, cemeteries along the coastline were unearthed and in some cases entire communities such as the entire Haitian community in Bevan’s Town which was "wiped out." 

Many here say that Frances and Jeanne were chicken feed compared to Wilma.

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