Although Cayman had made a miraculous recovery in the last 12 months a daunting task still lay ahead, Leader of Government Business Kurt Tibbetts said yesterday.
Mr. Tibbetts was speaking as the Legislative Assembly remembered the anniversary of Hurricane Ivan, the storm that devastated the country exactly one year ago.
Cayman had risen to enormous post-Ivan challenges but many people were still in the process of rebuilding and did not yet have the resources to begin that process, he said.
Cayman was in a good place one year later but the crisis was not yet over, he told the House.
Relief had to be brought to genuine cases and it had to be made sure that the people were supported as they recovered.
‘We must not and we cannot leave them behind,’ said Mr. Tibbetts, who also said he believed the country was now on the home stretch.
Hundreds of applications for housing assistance were still coming in and it would take at least another $15 million to complete the reconstruction for those remaining homes, he said.
Mr. Tibbetts appealed to the private sector for continued support and for people to dig deeply into their pockets and minds.
The government was enhancing the disaster preparedness plans, he told the House.
He also pleaded that what remained of the mangroves be left intact and said it was obvious that the country had to embrace higher building standards.
He pledged that the government would do everything in its power to make sure that people still struggling to recover would be in a much better place before the next anniversary of Ivan.
Speaking for the Opposition, MLA Julianna O’Connor-Connolly said there was still a long and difficult road ahead but the challenges were not insurmountable.
She asked that the government considered reducing the tax on gasoline to help the cost of living.
She also suggested that each district of Grand Cayman should be self sufficient for three to five days and that the Sister Islands should be self sufficient for seven days.
The Sister Islands Member, who said Ivan had been a wake-up call, also suggested that more supplies needed to be stockpiled on higher ground.
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