Prime Minister Perry Christie heard Tuesday of one nightmare after the other during a nine-hour walkabout along Grand Bahama’s coast from residents who fled their homes just before Hurricane Wilma’s fury.
They say they stayed because they had made all of the necessary preparations and hunkered down. And, with very little information from media reports, they simply weren’t prepared for the destruction and the loss of homes.
Prime Minister Christie headed a large delegation of Cabinet colleagues, opposition members and religious leaders out of the capital and toured the storm-ravaged coastal-lying areas.
The trek began in Hunters, moved into Lewis Yard, Pinder’s Point, Eight Mile Rock, Holmes Rock and ended in West End.
Hunters’ resident Denise Bevans recalled the scary, tense moments when she and her 17-year-old grandson were gathering last-minute items and the ocean crept up on them.
“We didn’t know the water would have been rushing in that quickly. When we came to the door the water had already broken it down and taken it out,” she said.
When they decided to get out she says there were already houses in the water floating towards them.
The boat which rescuers were attempting to assist them and others in sank and they had to fight their way to safety up the street to the St. Vincent de Paul Church before making their way to a relative.
“You hear people telling you when you live to the coast to get off. That water rises so quickly, you really have to take precaution,” she warned.
With so much uncertainty surrounding the latest storm, one thing that’s for certain, Bevans will not be returning to Hunters to live.
She says they were just trying to rebuild after the flooding from Frances and Jeanne and says to go through that again is not worth it.
“If I have to rent, I will. But I ain’t staying here,” she stated.
Shauna Joseph’s childhood home used to rest not far from the bay shore. As of late, her 66-year-old father was the lone resident and ran a conch shell craft workshop out of it.
But when they picked him up Monday morning, they didn’t know it was to be the last time they would see it.
It was a place Joseph called home for 18 years and, she says, they never expected the area would get wiped out.
“We just heard that there was some flooding,” she said, adding that her older brother called to say that the house was gone.
“We had to come and see it for ourselves and when we got here everything was gone.”
Only the foundation remained.
Her father was and still is in shock. He had left everything behind and only took with him the clothes on his back.
The once-wooden home had been refurbished into a concrete structure and other wooden and concrete homes around it were all washed away.
Now her father is staying with her, her mother and sisters.
“All the years we’ve been living here with hurricanes passing we’ve never experienced anything like this,” said Joseph.
They stayed until Monday evening treading through water looking for any of their personal effects to salvage.
That evening, they found two of her brother’s basketball trophies and on Tuesday morning his silver medal from when he played in The Bahamas Games.
“We were trying to find our photos. My mother found one picture of herself and she is holding on to that for dear life.
Lewis Yard resident Dorothy Lewis rode out the storm with 12 others after more relatives ﾗ an elderly couple, another adult and three children ﾗ appeared on their doorstep in the rain, during the storm surge.
“We moved the furniture from the front room to a higher level as the water came in. All of the boards came off of the house, even upstairs. We watched the water rise and recede. It came as high as the base board,” she said.
Lewis said the media didn’t say much and at the last minute the call was given for people in Lewis Yard to evacuate.
Prime Minister Christie, at a press briefing yesterday afternoon in the boardroom of the Office of the Prime Minister in Grand Bahama, pledged that they will work immediately and tirelessly to bring the hurricane victims relief as quickly as they possibly can.
Following a visit to Grand Cay, Housing Minister Shane Gibson said the devastation on Grand Bahama comes at an “extremely challenging time” for his ministry as it is just winding down its programme with repairs and restoration from Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne last year.
Teams have already been mobilized and orders put in for building materials.
Another challenge, he admits, is finding building materials and workers, as was the case last year.
He noted that government is also looking at the possibility of temporary housing.
Prime Minister Christie pointed out Tuesday that people do not take advisories seriously.
Debate begins today in the House of Assembly on legislation intended to implement a plan of action during a hurricane, including mandatory evacuations.
By LEDEDRA MARCHE, Senior Freeport News Reporter
