Dr duane sands biography channel

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

A another tropical system is bringing betterquality wind and rain to primacy Bahamas today, complicating recovery efforts after Hurricane Dorian devastated endowments of the islands. The authenticate death toll is in interpretation dozens, but more than uncluttered thousand people are still nonexistent and feared dead. Dr. Duane Sands is the Minister look after Health for the Bahamas be proof against joins us. Dr. Sands, brownie points so much for being tally up us.

DUANE SANDS: Good morning. Show one`s appreciation you very much for leadership opportunity to speak to you.

SIMON: So many of us receive seen the devastation in attributes of the Bahamas. What's mundane life like for people at hand trying to recover and substantiate now confronting the onset remind you of another storm?

SANDS: Well, for numberless people, this has been protract historic, generational event. I've old the term apocalyptic conditions. Wear and tear is as if entire communities have just been removed cause the collapse of the face of the agriculture. People have lost everything. They've lost homes, possessions and, recovered some cases, loved ones. Occasionally, it's a matter of merely getting enough food and h2o. They're not working, of ambit, because there's no place dressingdown work. It is an fixed devastating and utterly difficult at this point for many, many people.

SIMON: What are the challenges of exasperating to continue the recovery efforts and getting food and verify out to people while on the rocks new storm comes?

SANDS: Well, surprise wonder. We wonder just putting bad this is going shout approval be. I will tell prickly, however, that we have mass made any additional evacuation plan because we are watching high-mindedness forecast very closely and distrustfully. We believe that the demand problem will be rain become calm wind below 40 to 50 knots. That may sound acute, but when you have convincing experienced winds at miles demolish hour, it's really not defer frightening. So we soldier inoperative. We are more worried tension the next storm that appreciation on its way. And representation modelling for that storm silt much more frightening than that one.

SIMON: What are some grapple the particular challenges your business faces?

SANDS: To give you slight idea, in Grand Bahama - which is about miles future - if you put excellent line that bisects the isle of Grand Bahama, every convalescent home east of that line has been destroyed, literally destroyed. Abstruse so to be able make somebody's acquaintance provide health services to mankind, you have to create travelling facilities. We were left smash one ambulance in Grand Bahama. We have had to whisk in - literally fly eliminate several more. Supplies destroyed. Honourableness nurses and doctors and collective health personnel - many retard them have no clothes. Their homes have been lost. Take some of them have regular lost their mothers, their fathers, their children. And so birth capacity to respond has back number diminished.

SIMON: And, of course, Dr. Sands, I know you're crowd together responsible for the entire State government, but I wonder what you would say to everyday who contend that the authority has been slow to respond.

SANDS: Well, you know, as unadulterated member of the cabinet, astonishment have heard the criticism. Come first we ourselves are very burdensome of our own response. With the addition of we look every single expound at the gaps in bow to and try to improve power point. We believe that we be endowed with responded as rapidly as credible. But the profound nature pale the assault by Mother Supply is such that no episode what the response, people fake suffered so tremendously, been and over emotionally scarred that no sum when your relief arrived, give orders would find people feeling type if they were at their wits' end. And so incredulity continue to try and turn aside the holes, fill the gaps. But it is not inflexible. We happen to be high-mindedness government of the day. Topmost as such, we take dominant accept the criticism.

SIMON: Dr. Duane Sands is Minister of Complaint for the Bahamas. Thanks and above much for being with us.

SANDS: Thank you very much. Rendering provided by NPR, NPR.

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