NDMA to visit residences for damage assessment

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has said its teams would visit local residences for damage assessment following the heavy rainfall to the Maldives in the past few days.

The authority will begin its damage assessment efforts on Sunday.

Temporary shelter was arranged for a total of 226 individuals from 36 Male’ City residences due to flooding from the heavy rainfall to the city on Friday. NDMA provided food and support for the affected individuals.

The Chief Executive of NDMA, Hisaan Hassan, while speaking with ‘Sun’ Online confirmed that the affected individuals were temporarily relocated to various hotels in the city for a one-day period.

The impacted families and individuals have since returned to their homes to calculate the impact, while NDMA will dispatch its teams on Sunday for assessment. Hisaan added that the authority is extending time for the affected individuals to assess damages themselves as it would help with the final evaluation of the authority.

Although NDMA provides support to individuals, it does not provide any compensation or support to businesses. Businesses are required to claim for damages through their insurance providers, Hisaan added.

Besides Male’ City, various islands were impacted due to the heavy rainfall. Hisaan said the authority is now working with council bodies to assess damages to individual islands as well.

More than 500 residences in Male’ area reported of flooding due to rainfall, while 774 entities requested for assistance out of which 554 requests were made to install sand-bag barriers to stop flooding.

NDMA also conducted rapid assessments of 53 residences that reported interruption to necessities.