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He returned yesterday - and this morning after he appeared on the KREM W-U-B - we asked him if the Board of Governors meeting was more important than staying home to oversee the recovery efforts:.

Jules Vasquez
"Was the CDB board of governors meeting more important than domestic matters here?"

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"Well the CDB board meeting is an extension of domestic matters, we were voting for a new president and I also hope to talk to them about post hurricane assistance, so yes it was extremely important."

Jules Vasquez
"You should have already visited what is the ground zero for the storm [PM Barrow - Where is the ground zero?] The Yabra area, having been affected by both storm surge and the hurricane winds and it's adjoining your division."

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"I think that's the problem. There are several ground zeroes, we did the fly over. I didn't see how I could visit one area and not visit the others and quite frankly there were too many areas to visit. My role is to find the money to make sure that every single person affected by the storm can be assisted in a meaningful way."

Jules Vasquez
"Being here now, will you visit those storm affected areas on the ground again Yabra being so proximal to your Queen Square area?"

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"Yeah, that's not a problem as I said, I hope I don't get into trouble - damned if you do and you damned if you don't, I suppose. I hope I don't get into trouble for not being able to go to each and every single affected area, to each and every street."

Jules Vasquez
"There is something to be gain it would seem from an on the ground...there is no approximation of how bad it really is from the air. Do you feel that it was an omission to have not gone on the ground?"

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"No man, look, we put in place the expertise, the systems, the organizational efforts and most important the ability to access money to do something with respect to people that have been affected and that were suffering. For me that was and is job one. If symbolically there is a feeling that I should go on a street or two, that's not a problem."

And he took us up on the challenge. After the interview the Prime Minister went to get the minister of works Boots Martinez at his disaster recovery coordinating office and he led the way directly to Yabra - where the Prime Minister visited the hardest areas on the sea front seeing the damage first hand for the first time - albeit 9 days later.

For the area residents - including the family of baby Joshua - who have been so long in need - it was like an impromptu town meeting. And while the leather shoes may have seemed incongruous straddling the water puddles as the PM gingerly stepped across the planks and ducked through makeshift doors, throughout the tour there was no sidestepping the outcry of need and the PM was constantly engaged by the area residents even offering some solace also to the three men forced to live in tents - who have now gotten fees to rent a place until their living arrangements can be addressed.

Jules Vasquez
"From the air and from the ground it's a different view."

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"You are absolutely right Jules."

And while construction work was underway, some like this man who want his boat fixed was told he'd have to wait.

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"I still am committing to dealing with each and every household that's been affected in terms of structural damage, or structural destruction. I have requests for the replacement of cars, boats, I have to say that I don't know we can go that far."

And while the PM did get a few glossy moments, this was a full contact tour - almost everyone needed something - those who were getting their roof repaired needed a stove or a refrigerator - and many for one reason or the other felt they hadn't gotten anything. The Prime Minister says that seeing it first hand was valuable:

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"I will content myself with knowing that I will have to beg and borrow even more than I have perhaps first anticipated because the scale of the damage, the scale of the destruction is as you say far greater than I had appreciated from just the fly over. The real tragedy is that while we are doing the replacements, we can't replace at the level I would like to see us replace. People are going to be a little better off than they were no doubt before the hurricane but they are still not going to be in any sense protected from another hurricane; we can't build structures that will withstand category 2 ,3 or 4 hurricanes, and that's the real tragedy of things."

And while that is the long term problem, in the short term the PM was satisfied that help is getting out:

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"There is not a soul that I have spoken to including those that we've not been able to begin work for yet, not a soul that's not said 'I understand, I see the effort is being made', 'you did not reach me yet, but I know my turn is coming', I am grateful."

Jules Vasquez
"But I can't say the same for your area representative who has taken - from malcontents, but from reasonable people as well - a few impatient tones."

Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"Well you would expect that. He is the one who is on the ground. My job is easier in terms of my only having to find the money only. Clearly when you have to be out here on a day to day basis and see the people everyday who are frustrated, who would want the help to come far quicker that it is materializing - you can expect that there will be frail tempers and that things will sometimes deteriorate. I am certainly very happy though that I have not been greeted with any disrespect. I can tell you that I would love to maintain things like that, so I don't think I will be coming back until I am assured that the work is just about complete."

Hon. Boots Martinez
"At least when you get out there as the media you see that the condition of the people are being addressed so I always say 'don't worry about the noise in the market, you check your change' and one person or two person shouting and making noise and so forth does not deter my distraction in terms of the other people that is appreciative of what is happening and we have a job to do to deliver."

Jules Vasquez
"There is a lot of discontent which I suppose is inevitable."

Hon. Boots Martinez
"Well I don't know about a lot of people saying that they don't see me. You see work is being done at least on the perspective on where the ministry of works is concerned to get people live back together."

Jules Vasquez
"Something is breaking down because there is still a lot of people who complain to me."

Hon. Boots Martinez
"But I am saying that the Prime Minister was out here, I was out there, I don't know if the people are afraid of their representative or the Prime Minister."

Jules Vasquez
"Some of them say that you are quarrelsome."

Hon. Boots Martinez
"We were out there. Quarrelsome in what sense? I want to be reasonable in a lot of sense and I have to be real with you. I quarrelsome? I don't need to quarrel at all boss, I don't need to quarrel with people. All what people want is the service and you see that we are delivering the service. If you want to see how handsome I am, I have no problem with that. I always say to my constituency - I don't have a problem you know but I can walk around all day if people just want to see you, but what I know is that people want the service. But at the end of the day everything can't happen, there is the issue of short of supply of materials, there is the issue of land filling. There are various issues."

Various issues all over the place and on this day, the head of government got a chance to see it firsthand

According to the prime minister, the most recent figure on the assessment of the value of the storm damage is 75 million dollars. He says they have started work on over 50 homes in Belize City. Work is also ongoing in other districts. The Prime Minister also announced that the government will be borrowing from the Central Bank to finance the recovery effort. He says they will also be seeking foreign funding - particularly for drainage and a seawall in the Yabra area. To that end, IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno will visit Belize tomorrow.