American businessman Frank Cooney recounted the horrors of Hurricane Wilma after 100 mile per hour winds and 20 feet tidal waves swept over tiny Bimini.
The contractor and part owner of the Bimini Sands Condominiums, Marina, and Beach Club said that the six-hour ordeal was far worse than last year’s double battering by Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne. “We had sustained winds in excess of 100 miles per hour. This was the worse storm that I have seen in the 10 years that I have been visiting here. Tidal surges at the height of the storm exceeded 20 feet,” said Mr Cooney. “We were here for Francis, Jeanne, Floyd and all the rest of the hurricanes. This by far was the worse wind and water.”
According to Mr Cooney, the storm began battering the island at 8 a.m. on Monday. The assault, which lasted until two that afternoon, also wreaked havoc on low-lying southern Bimini. “I noticed at about 8 o’clock in the morning the waves just picked up considerably,” he said. “We were getting 10 to 15 feet waves coming in across the beach. South of the island it was more like 20 to 25 feet waves. The sandbar was destroyed and three large waves came in a sequence and hit right to the northwest corner of our Beach Club property.”
The tsunami-like waves ripped apart the sea wall and a large portion of the 45-year-old Beach Club building was washed out to sea, according to Mr Cooney. Adding to the devastation, which he said was around $2 million, was the flooding of the Beach Club eatery. “The restaurant was completely flooded; we had about six inches of sand and mud that came in,” he said. “The water came over the top of the building and knocked out the sliding glass doors and went right through. It filled up the whole interior of the restaurant.”
While Mr Cooney insisted that Bimini residents were fully prepared for the hurricane but he added that the intensity and widespread damage caught them by surprise. “We were all boarded up and set for a hurricane,” he explained. “People here were in safe havens. We weren’t worried about our own safety because we knew that we were going to be okay,” he continued. “We were just surprised by the amount of water that came in. Three quarters of South Bimini was underwater.”
Reflecting on his experience, Mr Cooney said he hopes he never goes through another ordeal like this again. “I never want to experience that again. It just seemed to intensify and get worse and worse.
By: JASMIN BONIMY, The Nassau Guardian
