Business View Caribbean | September 2019

62 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN SEPTEMBER 2019 pictured Roseau market, Dominica Co. back up and running as soon as possible, in order to help the people of Dominica. “Well, the storm affected the whole island,” he begins. “We have never seen anything like it before. I remember hurricane David in 1979, when the northern half of the island was spared and the southern half really took a pounding. But this one, the entire island was gripped as if by an octopus and pounded. My main house where I lived, the roof had gone. Unfortunately, the floor was wooden, and downstairs, where I sheltered from the hurricane, the water came in and we couldn’t really use the house, afterwards. So, I lived for a week in my laundry room in the yard – fortunately, because it was low down, it was clear from the hurricane. Within about four days, my builder and some agricultural workers came and decided to cover up my house in such a way that I could live there until after the insurance money came through and we were able to fix it up properly. “The business was also well-insured. However, we had some problems with looting, and insurances do not cover that, but all of the businesses are back up and running. In fact, we were the very first business in Dominica to be back, totally, after the storm. That’s important because we provide a lot of necessary items for people. Looters got into our supermarket in the north, but fortunately the police came to get me, and my son and I stayed there. We literally had to give away everything from the store because there were so many people outside begging for this and begging for that. And of course you don’t have staff; there’s no power; there’s no way of selling. So, we covered up the alcohol and gave away most of the other stuff. In that very store, a river from the capital had gone right through, and it was just a mess. “The main store, some people did break in. Fortunately again, the police came and were really securing that store for us and most of the goods in there remained. We did have to organize a giveaway at our store in the south, where we had most of the storm – three containers of frozen goods were given away because there was no electricity. After about a week, we reopened the gas station there and were able to sell gas. Our main store in the town was open within about a week and a half. We got a big generator and started operating from there. But there was no product in for a while because the port was out of service. “In our insurance department, one of the problems we had was everyone was asking “What are we going to do?” A lot of water had entered our main building, so we had to organize in the building next door to give customers claim forms, and then have the adjustors go out and assess people’s property. That started about three weeks after the hurricane. Also within that time, we had our shipping department back on. So within a month, we were doing business again. But it wasn’t easy; the banks were closed, as well. We had all the fun you could think of.