Hurricane Shelters During a Pandemic – Get Your Family Plans Ready!

John Bodden

On Friday, we will have an update for you on Tropical Depression Fourteen, but as you heard from the National Met Service, if TD-fourteen remains on track, it will make landfall in the Yucatan Peninsula. That means it will bring some rains and northern communities may experience flooding. Today, Principal Public Health Inspector John Bodden issued a reminder about the challenges of sheltering during a pandemic. Bodden reminds that face mask must be used and social distance must be practiced, but families need to make their plans with these measures in mind so that they don’t spread the virus.

John Bodden, Principal Public Health Inspector, Ministry of Health

“We are facing with an impending storm which could be at our doorsteps probably by the end of this week. We have to be cognizant that the possibility of death will also be at our doorstep. Of course, this depends on how good we have planned and the need for a family plan is critical – we need to know what we are going to do. This epidemic has changed the entire dynamic of the way we respond or plan for disaster. The question is, do dead bodies cause epidemics? Because if we have and people die and they could die possibly with COVID and as a result of the disaster, is there a potential risk for increased spread? And COVID is an infectious disease and that could create a spread. So, we have to be very careful of what we do as we move into shelters for those persons who feel unsafe in their living domain. We need to take all those necessary precautions to ensure that we can enter a shelter and we can safely exit a shelter without contracting the illness.”