Bahamas Red Cross President, Alicia Pinder spoke to ZNS News recently about the need for year round hurricane preparedness.

She said, “in response to hurricane one of the things that we do, first of all, is we try to be prepared.  The extent of the preparedness depends on the level of, of course, the devastation.”

Pinder also spoke about the resources currently available at the Red Cross.  “We do have supplies and  prepositioning of items into certain areas. In the event that there is storm, of course the challenge would be if there’s a devastation probably at the level of Hurricane Dorian that is when we spend a lot of time then looking at resources.  We have our International Federation of Red Cross that provides us with technical as well as relief support.  We do very often rely on corporate Bahamas as well to make donations that are specifically airmarked for hurricanes.”

The Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC) is a large sponsor of the Red Cross through its annual gala ball.  BTC Board Director, Peter Cartwright spoke about the importance of this move.  He said, “we’re very pleased to be a corporate sponsor for the Red Cross Ball.  This shows an underlying commitment to the community.  It also shows that BTC is onboard with and we appreciate the work that the Bahamas Red Cross has done and he continues to do and we hope that with this sponsorship it will be able to position the Red Cross in a way that they will be able to further commit and further be able to contribute to their efforts.”