Catholic Charities CEO: Building materials a priority for Bahamas

By Tom Tracy - Florida Catholic

MARSH HARBOUR, Abaco | Six months after Hurricane Dorian battered the northern Bahama islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama, the needs there have shifted to building materials. 

“The focus is more on this as the next stage of recovery,” particularly in Grand Bahama, said Peter Routsis-Arroyo, CEO of Miami’s Catholic Charities.

He noted that the Nassau Archdiocese recently updated its wish-list of donation items to include drywall and other products associated with helping residents of the Bahamas “dry-in, de-muck and de-mold” their homes. 

Nassau Archbishop Patrick Pinder personally led a delegation of senior staff from the Archdiocese of Miami’s Catholic Charities through Nassau, Grand Bahama and Great Abaco Island Feb. 19-21. The delegation included Routsis-Arroyo, Msgr. Roberto Garza, Catholic Charities’ board chairman, and Marco Greenslade, the agency’s director of finance. 

Waiting for a flight back to Florida following the tour, Routsis-Arroyo said he saw two largely different post-disaster scenarios unfolding in the Bahamas. 

A special Hurricane Dorian appeal throughout the Catholic community of South Florida has to date generated some $700,000 for Hurricane Dorian relief in the Bahamas, relief that is being coordinated with the Archdiocese of Nassau. The deadly hurricane struck the northern Bahamas in early September 2019 and left thousands homeless.

“We have sent moveable trailers over that are positioned in (Freeport) Grand Bahama, and we have been sending ongoing supplies — a good reason for coming out here was to see where we are six months out and where the needs are,” Routsis-Arroyo said. 

Initially, the need was for core elements people need to live: food, water and cleaning supplies, he noted. Now the focus will shift to providing building supplies. He added that donors to the hurricane collection have been extremely generous, not just individuals but also several private foundations. Supplies included foodstuffs, air mattresses, roofing materials and cleaning supplies. 

“Everything they have provided will go back 100 percent into this recovery, with some being utilized to help Bahamas evacuees in Miami as well. We are trying to help the archbishop and Caritas there in the long run, and will continue to raise the funds for them,” Routsis-Arroyo said. 

In Freeport, the trailers of donations are situated at Mary, Star of the Sea Parish, which has become a kind of community resource for Grand Bahama following the storm. Abaco, on the other hand, having been dealt a more severe blow from Dorian, is facing a more fragile recovery and extended period of rebuilding. 

“What you see in Grand Bahama was a typical disaster hurricane recovery effort through a Catholic Charities and a local parish, where they are reaching out and seeing what the needs of the local community are,” Routsis-Arroyo said. 

In Abaco, “that kind of structure no longer exists, so that is the challenge,” he said. “There are people slowly coming back, so it is very different from a normal disaster recovery type effort.”

Routsis-Arroyo compared Dorian’s impact in the Bahamas to what he saw following Hurricanes Katrina or Irma. 

“What I saw in Abaco today is what you would see in the immediate aftermath of a storm,” Routsis-Arroyo said. “We are still seeing clean up, and short of search and rescue, they are not really beyond that stage. But you also can see that little by little things are coming back: electrical wiring is going back up, they are drying-in some homes. There is true devastation here.”

 

CARITAS PARTNERSHIP

In Grand Bahamas, a new partnership between the Nassau Archdiocese and Caritas Antilles is accelerating home refurbishment and mental health programming at so-called resiliency centers for that island. 

“Six months later it’s great to see a visible presence there, whether that's through a resiliency center or the home repairs programs or the two young vibrant priests at (Mary, Star of the Sea Parish) who have connections with everybody in the area, whether those other people are Catholic or not,” Routsis-Arroyo said. 

“You can see the work that is being done and some of the stewardship of the funds that we have sent. (They) are being put to work there on a daily basis,” he added, something that should make donors and Catholics alike “feel good about the support we are providing.”

Archbishop Pinder told the Miami delegation that rebuilding in Abaco is complicated by lack of electricity, water, adequate housing and a work force. But the archbishop said he is committed to rebuilding a church in Treasure Cay and St. Francis de Sales School.

“What is different in Abaco from Grand Bahama is the fact that you had an entire island that basically had to be abandoned, whereas in other cases you knew people were coming back. When you’ve lost everything will you come back? The rebuild will mean new people coming in," Routsis-Arroyo said.

Some larger questions remain for governmental agencies to decide, but “I do see a role for general contractors and volunteers with experience in housing repairs. There will be opportunities here to help with the rebuild,” he added.

“You have to look at this short term, several years out and five and six years out. It's great to be able to plan but some of this means you have to be flexible enough to react to what's going on: Who’s coming back? Is it families, is it vacationers, and who is it the Church will eventually be serving?”

RELATED STORIES

• At Dorian's ground zero, a struggle to recover six months later.
• Post-Dorian partnership to rejuvenate communities in Grand Bahama.
• To donate to the Hurricane Dorian relief fund, go to www.ccadm.org.