BARBADOS' DISASTER MANAGEMENT CHIEF, Judy Thomas, wants more incentives from Government to get homes storm-ready.

But she says the private sector, rather than Government, can take the lead in giving the island its first custom-built hurricane shelter.

"There are a lot of incentives that the Prime Minister gives in his Budgetary Proposals that could include tax exemptions, tax incentives," she said, noting concessions for people buying water storage tanks and hurricane clips.

"Those kinds of things, I think, can be added and promoted so that persons who are constructing or who are retrofitting can get the tax break that they require to help them to carry forward those activities," Thomas told the SUNDAY SUN.

She is head of the Department of Emergency Management, the former Central Emergency Relief Organisation.

She noted that Barbados and the rest of the Caribbean had no purpose-built hurricane shelters, relying on a network of schools and churches to serve as emergency shelters.

Factors such as the open nature of some schools meant that only part of the compound could be used to shelter persons dislocated by weather systems, she pointed out.

In the case of schools whose construction was financed by the World Bank, provision had been made for creation of a "safe room" to be used as shelter, she noted.

"The school is not a purpose-built shelter," she explained. "It is a facility that from time to time will include all of the things that make it a shelter, but it does not start as being a building for mass shelter.

"I guess that [eventually] new schools will be so designed so that they can be easily converted to a mass shelter. That is not our reality. That is not a reality in the Caribbean."

On construction of a mass hurricane shelter, she said: "This is a good job for the media to start.

"The media can start it as a pilot. There is no law that says that Government has to provide anything. The private sector can do it. Individuals can do it."

Thomas made the comments during a break in the 3rd annual Multi-Hazard Disaster Management Symposium at Sherbourne Conference Centre on Friday. (TY)