Hon Kurt Tibbetts Leader of Government Business

Sister Islands residents will get financial relief after Hurricane Paloma’s destruction of homes and properties.

While relief workers distributed aid on Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, the private sector joined forces with Government to provide monetary help.

Leader of Government Business Hon Kurt Tibbetts revealed Wednesday, 12 November, on Radio Cayman’s Talk Today that Cabinet met with the Islands’ commercial banks to find ways to help, asking the banks to take a uniform approach to customer-relief measures.

The Government leader noted the importance of public and private sector partnership.

“There has been a tremendous outpouring of assistance from the private sector and we hope this will continue as it has been a great help,” he said. “It certainly has lifted people’s spirits. We will need this help for the reconstruction of the Sister Islands and we are confident that people will continue to rise to the occasion,” Mr Tibbetts said.

Cayman National Bank (CNB) and the Cayman Islands Development Bank (CIDB) announced Sister Islands financial-relief measures on Wednesday. CNB offered the waiver of loan and mortgage payments from October 2008 through January 2009.

Executive Vice President of Cayman National Brian Esau, said, “We have offered the waiver of loan payments from October to ensure our customers have available cash to assist them during this extremely difficult time in the Brac and Little Cayman.”

The CIDB waived interest and principal repayments for all existing Sister Islands customers’ loans for six months, and also announced a two percent interest-rate reduction on all new Sister Islands loans granted; and the availability of secured credit lines up to $50,000 for small businesses and $25,000 for farmers.

“Relief, in all its forms, including financing, is necessary in the immediate aftermath of a disaster,” said CIDB General Manager Ralph Lewis. “A great challenge facing consumers is the availability of disposable income during these disastrous times when the need to purchase supplies is a priority.”

Mr Tibbetts said the Civil Service Association Cooperative Credit Union (Credit Union) would do its part to help civil servants. Cabinet has agreed with Credit Union to offer Sister Islands public employees Government-guaranteed individual loans of up to $10,000 to help those without collateral secure funds.

Government workers in the Sister Islands were also being paid early for the month of November, Mr Tibbetts said.

Regarding uninsured Brac residents, Mr Tibbetts said Government would have to find ways to help those who suffered damage to their homes. Continuing private sector assistance would offset these costs, he said.

“Just as the private sector has been giving an outpouring of assistance, once we can get a continuation of that, we’ll be fine,” he said.

The Cayman Islands National Recovery Fund (NRF), which assists uninsured homeowners and low-income families, announced Tuesday the establishment of relief accounts for the Sister Islands at Butterfield Bank and CNB. Butterfield Bank made a donation of US$100,000 to the NRF shortly afterwards.

Butterfield’s Conor O’Dea said, “It is important for us to be able to assist our Sister Islands in any way we can in the aftermath of the devastating effects of Hurricane Paloma. The Sister Islands played an important role in the rebuilding of Grand Cayman after Hurricane Ivan; it is now our turn to play our part.”

Further assistance for the Brac and Little Cayman came in the form of waived Government fees.

Mr Tibbetts confirmed there is no duty on construction materials going to the Sister Islands, and the Port Authority announced an immediate waiver of port fees on goods imported to Cayman Brac.

Port Authority Director Paul Hurlston said, “We want to remove any potential barrier for recovery. We know people will start rebuilding and will need access to materials as quickly as possible to recover from the destructive forces of Hurricane Paloma. The respite of Port fees for one month is to meet immediate demands; we will revisit this issue as necessary.”

Minister of Commerce Hon Charles Clifford said, “This is good news and one more step in the right direction to ensure the recovery of our Sister Islands is swift and effectively meets the needs of our people. I commend the Port Authority for stepping up to the plate and encourage those private sector companies that are in control of fees and charges on the residents of our Sister Islands to follow suit as a way of aiding their recovery from Hurricane Paloma.”

The Government and financial industry were joined by other sectors in the financial-relief effort.

Digicel launched its Sister Islands Relief text promotion, which allows customers to donate by messaging “Sister Islands” to the short code 5151. With each text message sent, $1 will be donated to recovery efforts.

Digicel CEO Victor Corcoran said the company would match all funds donated by customers.

Individual citizens can contribute directly to the relief effort. The NRF, which concentrates on assisting the elderly, the infirm and families with young children, is appealing to the public to donate.

Donors can make contributions to the following Fund accounts: Butterfield Bank (CI$ account number:
02201/036345/00 or US$ account number: 01201/036345/01) and Cayman National Bank (CI$ account number: 011-11578 or US$ account number: 021-06309).