The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Deputy Chief Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

THE devastation caused by Hurricane Joaquin last year has given residents in San Salvador and Rum Cay all the motivation they need to evacuate homes, according to the administrator for both islands, Gilbert Kemp, who told The Tribune on Wednesday afternoon there has been very good response to relocating to shelters to ride out Hurricane Matthew.

Nearly 100 people in San Salvador are occupying the three shelters on the island, while around 25 people opted to utilise the shelter in Rum Cay. Mr Kemp said residents on that island are also concerned about severe flooding as “non stop” rain continues to fall causing water to settle at some sections of Rum Cay.

However, in San Salvador there has yet to be any serious impact as Matthew - at present a category 3 hurricane - approaches, Mr Kemp said. “We have some wind (here in San Salvador) and some rain earlier. The winds are not as high. So everybody is in shelters and we are just hunkered down,” Mr Kemp said.

“Preparations were already made so all of the shelters were opened since last night. One shelter had 62 persons, another had 14 another had like 20 and Rum Cay had like 25 people. Rum Cay is already having some water settle because they had a lot of rain, but no flooding yet. So as the rain continues anything could happen because Rum Cay is kinda low.

“People here are responding well to the shelters; you know there was Joaquin last year. So I saw a 94-year-old woman, she was very quiet while at one of the centres. She said ‘Commissioner I am scared!’”