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Evacuee Youster Snagg-Jack speaking at the consultation with Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves in Kingstown on Wednesday, July 24, 2024.
Evacuee Youster Snagg-Jack speaking at the consultation with Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves in Kingstown on Wednesday, July 24, 2024.
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The National Emergency Management Organsiation (NEMO) has come in for strong criticism from evacuees from the Southern Grenadines for the way they say they have been treated at the agency’s offices in Kingstown.

At his consultation with evacuees in Kingstown, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves called on NEMO Director Michelle Forbes to respond to complaints from evacuees about the alleged attitude of her staff and inadequate personnel at her offices.

Minister of National Mobilisation Keisal Peters informed the prime minister that when she was Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade before taking up her new assignment one week earlier, she had been warned about a shortage of certain commodities on the local market that go into food boxes that her ministry distributed to storm victims. 

The treatment that evacuees said they received at NEMO first came up when Union Island resident Youster Snagg-Jack spoke at Wednesday’s meeting, where she was “standing in the gap for my mother and my brother”.

She said the three of them came to St. Vincent after the July 1 passage of Hurricane Beryl and were greeted at the wharf in Kingstown by people from St. Vincent and the Grenadines Red Cross Society.

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Snagg-Jack said they were instructed to form two lines, one for people who were moving into private homes and another for people going to government shelters.

“They told us to come three days after. I gave them five days. Went there, and received nothing. We were told to come back. I went back a second time. Nothing.  So, I say ‘OK. That’s it for Red Cross.’”

Snagg-Jack said they were told to go to the Adventist Conference Room in Montrose, to register with NEMO. 

“We did that. We were told to go to Campden Park to get foodstuff. When we went to Camden Park, we were told you have to get a form from NEMO in order to get this foodstuff. 

“We say, ‘OK then.’ We journeyed back to Kingstown, went back to NEMO conference room where we were told, ‘Oh we’re not supposed to give any paper. They are supposed to have the paper there.’ 

“I said. ‘OK. I ain’t bothering with NEMO and their foodstuff.’”

Snagg-Jack said she, however, went back to NEMO two days later to get a mattress or a cot for her mother and my brother. 

“I was told when I got there. ‘We don’t have any more paper. We don’t have any more paper. We not taking down any more names’,” Snagg-Jack said, repeating the words in a manner that suggested that the NEMO staff had been abrupt with her.

“I said, ‘OK then fine; fair’,” the woman, who was displaced by the storm said. 

At this point, the prime minister said:

“If you tell me who that person is privately.  I assure you that that’s the last time that person will be at that –” the prime minister said, his last word drowned out by the cheering of the crowd.

Snagg-Jack assured the prime minister that she would be able to recognise the person if she goes back to NEMO.

“Because she spoke to me with such disgust. Yeah, these are people from Union, they … have lost their homes, but don’t treat people like that. It’s the way she spoke, ‘Oh, the paper finished. I’m not writing anything else’,” Snagg-Jack said.

“I mean, please! We are here. It’s not three o’clock, it’s not four o’clock. I went there at midday. Paper finish? I mean, come on. You don’t treat people like that.”

Ralph Gonsalves 2 1
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves speaking at the consultation with evacuees from the Southern Grenadines in Kingstown on Wednesday, July 24, 2024.

At the consultation, Gonsalves was speaking from the podium while Chief Education Officer Kay Martin-Jack, Minister of Education Curtis King, and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Myccle Burke were seated at the head table.

Forbes was sitting towards the back of the room. 

The prime minister then asked if Forbes was in the room. On hearing that she was, Gonsalves said:

“You hear the report as to what somebody said about your staff up there? I need you, as a prime minister, to find out about this thing. And this lady, Mrs. Snagg-Jack has given testimony on this thing. Find out what has transpired there. And let’s deal with this.”

Gonsalves said the person that Snagg-Jack had complained about “may be good to help to do something else. I have no doubt that she’s a person of merit but, obviously, doesn’t have the temperament to handle people in a situation like that.”

However, that was not the extent of Snagg-Jack’s complaint.

She told the prime minister that when they asked for a cot or mattress, she was told that these things take time and that they have to be processed. 

“How long? These people came from Union. It’s a disaster. How long can this processing take just to get somebody a cot or a mattress? We’re not asking for food,” Snagg-Jack said. 

Gonsalves said that if NEMO has no cot of mattress in stock, they should say so and give an indication of when they would have. 

“They had lots of mattresses. And when I learned that they were running out of cots, I went and asked — we ordered 1,000 cots from Jax because some other cuts were coming in.”

He said Jax had indicated that they would get the cots within a week.

Gonsalves then asked Forbes if they had arrived and she said that they were expected to arrive this week.

Responding to another question from the prime minister, Forbes said that there were cots and mattresses in stock.

“Well, let’s give Mrs. Snagg-Jack her mattress and her cot,” the prime minister told the NEMO direction.

“Thank you, sir. I will be there tomorrow God willing to collect my mattress and my cot,” Snagg-Jack said as the crowd applauded. 

Kedrian John Harvey
Kedrian John-Harvey speaking at the consultation with Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves in Kingstown on Wednesday, July 24, 2024.

Meanwhile, Kedrian John-Harvey also complained at the consultation about the treatment she said she received at NEMO.

She said that her father and children were already in St. Vincent and the people they were staying with in Orange Hill registered all of them.

“But I went to NEMO today. And me ain’t able with dem dey,” John-Harvey told the prime minister. 

“They have no sort of manners. Nothing. … Oh Gah (God) the little Hurricane mash up — Oh Gah, have ah little empathy for us. You know, they have none whatsoever.”

Gonsalves asked John-Harvey to tell him about her experience.

“Well, I went there? I dey dey sit down.  I met people there so obviously I have to wait. So, when I go, they say I ain’t coming to her, I going to this person,” John-Harvey said.

“It have like 10 ah dem. And only two persons could assist you. Who nah dey pon computer — tick, tick, tick — nd dis dey over dey writing and you know — come on! Alyo have to work together and help people. So many persons are sitting and waiting. It was ridiculous. And I say I have to come this meeting today.”

On hearing this, Gonsalves called Forbes to the front of the room.

“Well, Michelle, you have to come and explain and answer. No, you have to come and answer. No, you have to come and answer. There must be a reason,” the prime minister said.

He said maybe it was that all the people who John-Harvey met at NEMO were doing work related to the disaster. 

“But you probably need more people to work with those who are coming in. So, I’m sure those who are working on the computers, those who are recording things, are doing work in relation to the disaster,” Gonsalves said.

“Michelle what’s the situation there? How many persons we have dealing with individuals who come for assistance?” Gonsalves said.

When Forbes came to the front of the room, she asked where John-Harvey had gone. 

John-Harvey said it was at the Adventist Conference Room, adding, “A lot of young people there. They need to have some broughtupsy and they need to know how to speak to people. They don’t know how to speak to people at all.”

Forbes said that she and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Mobilisation would have to have a chat about that.

Michelle Forbes
Director of NEMO, Michelle Forbes, second from right, at the consultation in Kingstown on Wednesday, July 24, 2024.

Gonsalves said:

“Yeah, well, if persons who are there, Michelle and Keisal, if they’re not appropriate to those circumstances, we get persons who are appropriate to those circumstances.”

The prime minister said it was clear that more people were needed to deal with evacuee complaints.

Forbes told the prime minister that eight to 10 people were dealing with individual complaints.

“Well, she said you only saw two,” Gonsalves said and Forbes, who was not speaking directly into the microphone, appeared to say only two of the staff were assigned to the Adventist conference room.

Gonsalves  said:

“Maybe what we can do, right here, you might have two, three or four persons from Union Island with the necessary skills whom we can hire immediately. They can come and see you tomorrow. If there are persons who have the necessary skills or aptitude for this sort of a thing, go and see Michelle and we will hire you.

“So that maybe this is somebody you may know, they may have a better sense of, get a better warmth, because the persons are complaining about a lack of empathy. And we mustn’t have that.”

He said there cannot be “empathy in the numbers, empathy in the political leadership, empathy doing this and that, but when somebody goes with some assistance, that they’re having difficulties”. 

The prime minister asked the packed room to indicate by a show of hands the number of people who had gone to NEMO and received assistance.

Several hands went up and the prime minister said the response at NEMO, based on what he was hearing, is uneven, adding that some people are getting assistance and others have gone and have been dissatisfied. 

Kerise John
Kerise John speaking at the consultation with Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves in Kingstown on Wednesday, July 24, 2024.

Meanwhile, Kerise John said she had had a pleasant experience with NEMO.

“When I went to NEMO and the young lady that dealt with me, I took her name because I said if I don’t get a call, I’m going to hold you responsible. And I got a call,” John said.

“So I think it’s important that when we go to NEMO, we take down the names of the person that we are dealing with. So at least we can say such and such is the one who dealt with me. Okay.”

The prime minister said the advice she had given was very good. He asked her if she had had a good experience with NEMO and she said yes. 

3 replies on “NEMO under fire for alleged treatment of hurricane evacuees”

  1. Karen Cumberbatch padmore says:

    A lot of stuff coming in
    The prime minister is doing his best
    The people betwwen him and the people actually needing the assistance
    Are the problem
    The stuff going to themselves
    Family members and friends
    The amount of boxes people moving away from the port with when the relief boat comes..
    Wickedness

  2. This is what you get when politicians send people who are incompetent to work at different places. Managers get blame because they can’t turn them back. I see at port people talking to supervisors as they want because a politician tell them to go work there

  3. Hyacinth Harry says:

    Isnt poor customer service the norm in Svg,especially inn government places.Go to the social welfare department etc and you willl see what its like .
    Have you so quickly forgotten how ppl were treated during the volcanic eruption?
    Come on ,dont blame Ms Forbes !We all know the reasons why these workers behave this way…

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