Dionne Rose, Staff Reporter

The new government could be faced with a hefty bill to assist persons affected by Hurricane Dean, with islandwide house-to-house assessments showing major damage to 18,000 houses so far.

Alvin McIntosh, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, told The Gleaner yesterday that, according to its reports, there have been some 15,000 major damage and 3,000 reports of houses that were destroyed.

He said the report, which was done on Friday, also showed that there were 17,000 reports of minor damage to houses. So far, some 37,000 assessments have been done islandwide.

"We had hoped to complete the investigations already but we have extended it in some parishes to the end of this week," he said.

Extended assessments

The parishes where the assessments have been extended are on the south coast. They include St. Catherine, Clarendon, Manchester and St. Elizabeth.

"So, the investigations continue in those parishes and we are doing some mopping up exercise in the other parishes too," Mr. McIntosh explained. "In other words, those persons who were not assessed and have called in to say that they are not assessed, we are visiting them to make sure they are assessed."

Mr. McIntosh said the ministry was unable to say what level of assistance would be given to these persons. He said, as soon as the ministry has finalised the assessments, this would be addressed.

Meanwhile, he said distribution of cheques to pensioners and beneficiaries on the Programme of Advancement Through Health and Education (PATH) continues.

"Already, we have distributed approximately 70,000 cheques to the NIS (National Insurance Scheme) pensioners amounting to roughly $350 million," he said. "The only ones remaining are pensioners who have agents; our officers will be taking the cheques directly to those pensioners rather than allowing agents to collect on their behalf."

He said some 45,000 PATH beneficiaries have already received their cheques.

Following the passage of Hurricane Dean, former Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller had allocated a special one-off payment of $2,000 to persons on the PATH programme and $5,000 each to the country's 80,000 pensioners. Distribution of the cheques started late August.

dionne.rose@gleanerjm.com