DEVASTATION in Abaco after Hurricane Dorian. (NOAA via AP)
By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
A WEEK-long national memorial with various activities in honour of Hurricane Dorian victims, survivors and first responders will be held beginning next month, press secretary Clint Watson announced yesterday.
Mr Watson said activities will be held on Abaco and Grand Bahama – the islands directly affected by the monster storm- as well as New Providence.
The events will take place as the country marks the third anniversary of Hurricane Dorian making landfall.
“It will be a week of activities which we will be announcing very soon as to how we will go through the week of memorialising those involved in Hurricane Dorian so listen out to that,” Mr Watson said during an Office of the Prime Minister press conference yesterday.
“There will be events here in New Providence, Abaco and Grand Bahama.”
He also revealed plans for a national memorial concert to be held at Baha Mar that will feature local talent as well as famous American gospel singer, Cece Winans, who will be headlining the event.
“The New Providence concert, which is being sponsored by the private sector, will take place on Thursday September 1. A concert will also take place in Abaco on Saturday, September 3with Grand Bahama’s being held the following day.
The concerts will also be free, OPM added.
Other memorial activities planned include social outreach events and a weather symposium on Abaco, which will be hosted by media personalities and Bishop Silbert Mills.
More details on the events will be announced next week.
“The celebrations will be the first government recognised memorial since the passage of Dorian. We highlight the opposition’s support for these national events for what will be a nonpartisan and unifying effort,” OPM also said.
Hurricane Dorian hit Abaco on September 1, 2019, as a Category 5 hurricane before barreling toward Grand Bahama.
Nearly three years later, the islands remain in recovery mode.
While the official death toll of the storm is said to be 74 people, many more are still missing.
