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Advertisers Dupuch & Turnquest & Co.
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Business as usual after Hurricane Floyd
Packing winds that clocked at more than 200 mph in parts of the Bahamas, Floyd ripped through the islands leaving chaos in its wake. The islands of Abaco and Eluthera received the brunt of the wind damage. Sea surge flooded part of the Freeport International Airport with six feet of water, destroyed sea walls throughout New Providence and ruined several fruit farms.
Steven Watson, director and general manager of Royal & Sun Alliance Insurance Bahamas Ltd., estimated that the damage caused from Hurricane Floyd is in the neighborhood of $300 million.
Larry Brantley, president and chief executive officer for the Freeport Power Co., reported that while more than 90 poles were knocked down from Floyd’s 180-mile winds that struck Grand Bahama Island, many customers had service within two to three days. Southern Co., Freeport Power’s American business partner, sent a special crew to assist Freeport and then Abaco to recuperate services. In all it took Freeport Power 11 days to completely restore service to all of its customers.
In Nassau, Cable Bahamas, The Bahamas Telecommunications Corp. (BaTelCo), and the Bahamas Electricity Corporation (BEC) worked together to clear downed trees and fix downed electric poles so that services could be restored.
“The winds mangled some our steel communications towers as if they were made of straw,” he added, noting that Batelco sustained upwards of $60 million in damage.
Glenn Hill, senior vice president and chief financial officer for Cable Bahamas, estimated that Cable Bahamas sustained $375,000 dollars worth of damage. “Our system was fully operational throughout the hurricane. Most of the damage was from downed trees and power lines.”
There is a saying that goes “there is nothing bad from which something good does not come”. The good thing that came from Floyd for the Outer Islands was the ability to renovate hotels and restaurants.
“We sustained about $300,000 in damage, said Toby Tyler, one of owners of The Landing located on Harbour Island. “What we have decided to do is to take the hotel back to its plantation past. We have looked at pictures of how it was in 1910, wooden floors, changing all the furniture and re-doing all the rooms.
Today, except for a few downed trees that have yet to be carried away, it is business as usual in The Bahamas.
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Table of Contents The Bahamas: An established tourism and tax-free financial services center experiences a renaissance |
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It was the week of Sept. 12, 1999 and since 98 percent of the population of the Bahamas has cable access, the country watched on The Weather Channel as Hurricane Floyd, a Category four storm, crept ominously toward the archipelago. Most agree that the only good thing about Floyd was that it hit during the day.
“We tracked the storm on every island from within our headquarters in Nassau and we were fixing the damage as soon as we could get out of the building. BEC reacted very quickly to restore power and also helped us,” said Michael Symonette, president and CEO of BaTelCo.