Bahamas Red Cross Decentralizing Disaster Response Network

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – As the country prepares for the peak of the hurricane season, the Bahamas Red Cross Society is moving more of its disaster response operations outside of the capital.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Society’s Interim Central Council Meeting, Bahamas Red Cross President Edison Sumner says the goal is to have supplies, volunteers, and resources already in place before a storm threatens.

Edison Sumner – President, Bahamas Red Cross Society

“We’re establishing physical presence on these islands and not just having a committee on the islands…so that once we get the physical buildings up and running, each of those buildings will have warehousing capacity.”

“They will have administrative capacity so that we can actually be able to send supplies to the islands well ahead of a storm coming in so that when they need to respond to the community, the supplies they need are already resident on the island.”

Sumner says having resources already on the islands will cut down response times, and give local volunteers the tools they need to help their communities immediately.

He says that approach has been shaped by the organization’s recent responses to several emergencies.

While he believes the new strategy will produce better results, he says it also comes with a greater demand for people and resources.

Edison Sumner – President, Bahamas Red Cross Society

“It’s gonna require a lot more effort now because apart from managing headquarters in Nassau, the Grand Bahama Center, Abaco, we now have to manage effectively over 16 islands across the country.”

“So our workload has increased exponentially, the resources that is required has also increased exponentially.”