Politics set aside as MLAs join relief effort

| 13/11/2008

(CNS): Members of the Opposition, United Democratic party headed to the Sister Islands yesterday to join Julianna O’Connor Connolly, the 1st Elected member in an effort to assist the residents of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman after the devastating impact of Hurricane Paloma. The MLAs said they intent on putting politics aside to work together with all Members to help get things back to normal.

“All of the Members of the Legislative Assembly are working very hard together to assist the people of the Sister Islands”, said O’Connor Connolly. 

Leader of the Opposition, the Honourable McKeeva Bush, who has been off island for the past week for medical reasons, said he is extremely concerned about the recovery efforts and has been in constant contact with the other MLAs to ensure that they work diligently with the people of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman to develop plans for a speedy recovery.

"I have been praying for the people of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman and will do whatever I can to ensure that the resources are allocated to restore the islands and the quality of life of its residents back to normal", said Mr. Bush.  

The MLAs said they had been briefed on the state of the Sister Islands and have been working with various groups to get supplies to the Sister Islands as soon as possible. They visited Cayman Brac on Sunday to assess the damage first hand and toured the island, visiting shelters and assuring residents that their fellow Caymanians were already sending tremendous amounts of assistance.

MLA Capt Eugene Ebanks noted that Cayman Brac was well positioned to receive aid as their airport and sea ports were up and running.

The MLAs also expressed their support for the work of, and to heed the advice being given by, the Government and the various national disaster personnel relating to travel to the Sister Islands.    “Persons who are not directly involved in the relief efforts should heed the advice being given to stay away from the Sister Islands during this initial period”, said Cline Glidden, Opposition MLA.

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  1. Kerry Horek says:

    I am really glad to hear that politics have not been playing an important role in the recovery efforts for my beloved Cayman Brac. 

    I would note that the Rooster Talk show host Elio Solomon couldn’t help himself with his usual bullying of the Government.  Glad he actually went to Cayman Brac to offer his assistance to his bracker spouse and family.

    There are many who is need of help and assistance and we cannot do for some and not all.  Everyone needs help regardless if they support you during election or not and keeping the politics out of this catastrophic event is very important.

    I must commend the Leader of Government Min. Kurt Tibbetts and his Government for seeing that the Cayman Brac civil servants received their salary for this month early and also the additional resources that they have put in place with the CIDB to offer loans of up to $10K for persons to help with to rebuild their lives.

    What I see that has failed miserably in Cayman Brac is the fact that many persons do not have home owners insurance.  I understand that many couldn’t afford this but I am hoping and praying that once they get their homes rebuilt that our Government will do what they did with the health insurance and that is to put in place an insurance company that will provide adequate property insurance for these home owners that they can afford and will be free from all the usual fine print of being under insured.  When we realize that not everyone in this country can afford the astronomical rates of home owners insurance then we can really begin to appreciate that there are a growing population of poor persons in our community.

    So to close I am contented that there no politics playing their usual games in this regard and that everyone will have their homes rebuilt and certainly with a better standards in place and not permit too many corners to be cut in order to finish faster.

    I know that God will continue to bless our islands and all we have to do is simply stop playing the politics and unite and become stronger and wiser.

    This is my prayer for our nation and that is for the two parties to unite and become one very strong and smart Government.