BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PRIME MINISTER Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris has expressed his disappointment in reports that he went empty handed to visit nationals of St. Kitts and Nevis who are residing on the hurricane-ravished island of Anguilla.
Dr. Harris was at the time responding to questions fielded by a reporter during a post-Hurricane Irma press briefing held yesterday afternoon (Sept. 14) in the Parliamentary Lounge at Government Headquarters.
The reporter sought his comment on reports that “some persons in Anguilla said they were disappointed that the ministerial delegation that visited the island went there with empty hands and did not take any supplies”.
In response, Dr. Harris said: “We met with over 100 persons, none of them expressed any disappointment; none, none of them. Indeed I have the names here, they were volunteers to begin to coordinate whatever services and support the Government will provide.”
He suggested that people must ask themselves what the Prime Minister or his Deputy should walk with to give the nationals on Anguilla if they were going to that island in “a little chartered plane”.
The Prime Minister added: “What it is they are going to take on a plane other than they are going there to engage our citizens in a responsible way as I have outlined – take note of their concerns. And secondly, importantly, we have to deal with the realities; the realities of Anguilla at this particular moment in time to receive certain support and services.”
He pointed out that when he left Anguilla, the officials there were working in assessing their needs and that no official list was presented to him. “Indeed we invited them to formalise the issues that we had discussed so that we could act upon them.”
Dr. Harris claimed that is how things are done.
“You wait until the country provides an official, if you will, wish list of things. And that is what we respond to because you could well find yourself providing things that they have adequate supply of and then they are denied the opportunity.”
He reminded that Anguilla is an overseas British territory and that the British Government is currently conducting an assessment of the damage and providing supplies.
“The Anguillan Government did not request that of us, thus, neither did our nationals,” Dr. Harris said. “Our nationals were more concerned about their children’s education, and that is what we put to them. They were concerned about issues to do with electricity, getting the country back to normalcy. That is why we proffered that assistance. So it was in areas of felt need that we responded to.”
He however noted that the seaports in Anguilla are not all at a state of readiness for receipt of certain supplies. “In other words, there are challenges at least in one of the ports and that is therefore going to restrict movements in there.”
Dr. Harris declared that contrary to reports, supplies were sent to Anguilla.
“...More importantly, the day before we left there, we organised and facilitated Ocean Hunter in taking to Anguilla a boat load of supplies for our people. A boat load of supplies left Nevis, Charlestown the day before, supported by the Nevis Island Administration, Federal Government and private parties. And we know that they were received.
He confirmed the receipt of two cartoon boxes with supplies sent Sonia Carr to former Chief Minister Hubert Hughes.
“So this notion that people were disappointed has no bearing in truth,” he said, adding, “The supermarkets in Anguilla when we were there were open and food was available.”
The Federation’s Political Leader noted that electricity is the major challenge the people are facing in Anguilla.
“They said, ‘Well, the supermarkets are concerned as to how long they are going to be running on these back-up generators, because that has consequence in terms of fuel and diesel.’ And already that is a main challenge for them. Those are the concerns. They told us we have adequate supplies of food. They had certain challenges with respect to water, but water was being produced, even while we were there, from one entity. The challenge was about Mother Nature that there, by and large, are depending on the soil water. And with the failure with the electricity supply, that would be the concerns they have.”
PM Harris warned that care must be taken in not to add to the agitation of people in moments of crisis.
Reiterating what his Government did, Dr. Harris said: “So, we had been moving in terms of supplies, those are being facilitated. We have the stats from the Customs Department...boats have gone to Anguilla from St. Kitts, more than one boat. So the issue of taking things, that not at a crisis level but not at a level where people have to worry from what we saw and what the emergence of people told us there. Not one of the over 100 persons, again, with whom we met raised issues of food. Not one for the record. Not one official of the Government raised that in terms of shortage in the horizon of food supply. And thankfully Anguilla has, and it is expected, I hope, that the British Government funds fully.
He informed that the British Government had sent its most senior foreign emissaries to show that they were serious and “we are expecting that they will do their part”.
Dr. Harris asserted that his Team Unity Government would fulfil whatever it has to do.
“People are talking about more substantial things dealing with the recovery, getting on with their lives. People were asking could you facilitate us with some generators. So then how you are going to get that, we don’t even give people in St. Kitts. They said, ‘No, no we are going to buy.’ I said if you can procure these things we will get them down to you.
“When we came back I asked the Cabinet Secretary, check with Commander Wallace where are our Coast Guard vessels. First she said one was up at Oualie Beach...So we have them and we have determined that we are going to be facilitating the response through those coordinators that have volunteered. People like Gary Moving, a well known accountant who is spending a lot of time in Anguilla...and there two other ladies who volunteered to be the coordinators and focal points so that when things are coming they will have the information and they will pass in relation to that.”
On Wednesday (Sept. 13), a press release from the Opposition St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party stated that one Bernard Wattley, a Kittitian residing in Anguilla, viewed the visit as being “mere PR stunts”.
The release indicated that on his Facebook page, Wattley purportedly wrote: “So the Prime Minister (Harris) came through accompanied by Ian Patches and a cameraman. Why they came? I am not very certain since the PM did not appear very certain about anything.
“In fact, when asked by one national about the possibility of relocating children, nationals of course, of school age, whose education here would have been interrupted by the storm, he (Dr. Harris) said his government would have to think about how it could assist.”rary Services in the Government of Anguilla.”
The release also indicated that Wattley said: “And would you believe the PM (Harris) having seen the devastation here found it necessary to speak to the fact that some houses in St. Kitts as well as the recreational facilities in Mansion and St. Pauls losing their roofs?”
Seemingly, the Prime Minister was aware of that press release as he made reference to Facebook posts in his response to the reporter’s question on how many nationals were badly affected in those islands by Hurricane Irma.
“We are still attempting to get that factual data. And that becomes difficult in the context of the damages that had been experienced. In Anguilla, for example, almost every government building has been hit. Amost every Government building from schools, police station. They told us there were issues at prisons but those have been corrected; hospital about 90% damaged. That is why you see we are talking real things when we talk about hospital, because we are answering these are felt needs, not the little things that people could go in a shop and buy you walk in a week after a week after. And we ensured – that is why I went as part of the OECS Monetary Council...in Grenada.
“We went there! In addition, I ensured that I had time to meet with my naturalised, because that was a critical part of it and to hear from them; because I can’t be relying on what people putting on Facebook under false name with all kind of machinations at a time of national crisis. Rather than sending people home, they are trying to add to the destabilisation of societies.
He continued: “No one, again, of the 100-plus, and that must be a large sample of our nationals, asked about evacuation. No one put that to me. So that was not a question again that I find was pressing. Indeed, for the record, there is no prohibition on persons leaving other than the logistic constraint now of movement.
“So even if our nationals wanting to come home, basically, if they could get on a boat or get upon a plane, and those are logistical challenges. Right now only relief charters are going into Anguilla.”
Dr. Harris emphasised that those are the only constraints and there is no need to say that the people could not get out off the island.
He noted that the Government and the people in Anguilla are satisfied, adding that “indeed we may have heard maybe two or three days ago when persons were asking the Governor in Anguilla why don’t you declare a state of emergency.
Dr. Harris pointed out that the Governor’s response was that the situation was well-managed. He insinuated that there was no need for the Governor “to intervene and show lack of confidence in the ability of the Government to restore”.
He posited that as a government, they have to be careful that “our own engagement in the societies and countries do not help to spread the lack of confidence in the abilities of Governments to move the recovery effort”.
